Chapter Text
Well, here goes nothing.
Grace takes a deep breath, and clicks ‘connect.’
He stares at the screen of his laptop, nervously fidgeting as he waits for the call to connect.
Finally, the screen changes, showing a familiar, albeit much older, face.
Eva Stratt.
Instinctively, his reaction is to flinch, to run, to get away from her, but he chose to call her, and he wants closure from all this, if she’s willing to give it.
He takes a good look at her. She’s sitting in a prisoner’s uniform, and wrinkles cover her face, just as the color white conquers her once ginger hair. Otherwise, she looks more or less the same, with her piercing stare and neutral face.
He’s gotten older, yes, but due to time dilation, she’s now 26 years older than him, at least.
Her eyes widen once she processes the face looking at her from the other side of the screen.
“Dr. Grace. You’ve made it. To Erid.‘ Despite her initial surprise, her voice remains calm and even as she speaks, though she speaks slightly slower than normal, as if trying to come up with the words she should say.
“Yup. I see you’ve made it to your final destination, too,” he jokes, though it comes out very flat. It wasn’t too good of a joke anyway.
“Yes, well. That’s the cost of everything I’ve done. I expected it.” A pause. She seems lost for words. He’s never seen her this shocked before–which makes sense, given the circumstances,–but it’s still disconcerting to Grace, who’s always seen her as stoic and determined. She never wasted time to dwell on surprises, even when…well. Even when Dubois and Shapiro died, and when she made the choice to send him in their place. “How–”
He cuts her off, already anticipating the question. “Eridians are surprisingly good at inventing things. They found a way to contact Earth quickly, I don’t necessarily know the specifics.”
“Oh. Then, I suppose, how are you?”
Grace pauses. He wasn’t expecting that question, least of all from her. “I’m…doing good. I’m happy here.”
She nods, a brief mixture of a smile and surprise crossing her face. “Yes, speaking of which. 40 Eridani A b–No, you call it, ehm, Erid, looks awfully similar to Earth. I assumed they didn’t have any light from what you mentioned about the alien. Rocky.”
“Oh, this is just my…habitat, so to speak. They’ve been trying to accommodate for me.” He picks up his computer and points it to the window near him, showing Stratt the artificial beach outside.
“Impressive.”
“Yes, well. Eridians are a really impressive species,” Grace smiles, but the smile is strained. He should get to the point. “Anyways, I wanted to call you because I–well–uh.–Sorry, let me try again. What I mean to say is, I want closure. So I want to tell you that I understand what you did. I understand why you did it, I-I’ve come to terms with it, it makes sense. Even so, I don’t forgive you.” He chuckles darkly. “The nightmares are proof of that—but that’s not the point. I just…wanted to say, I understand why you did it.”
Stratt stares at him for a second through the screen, an unreadable expression on her face.
“I’m sorry.”
Grace’s eyebrows raise. Stratt? Apologizing? That’s a first.
“Do you really mean that?” his words comes out sounding cautious and wary, with hardly any hope apparent in his voice.
‘No.’ Stratt bluntly says.
Grace laughs lightly. That sounds more like her.
Stratt smiles, which is as close to a laugh as he’s sure he’ll ever get.
Then her expression turns back to the familiar serious face he recognizes. “No, but truly, I am sorry that it was you. That it had to be like that–for you. But,” she continues, “I’m not sorry for what I did or for what I did it for. We saved Earth, you see? You saved Earth. I knew you could do it, and I knew what I had to do. For your…kids. For their future. But I must apologize once again for the way I treated you.”
Grace exhales loudly. God, that felt…cathartic, hearing that from her. It didn’t change anything, not really, but hearing her acknowledge what she did, even if it wasn’t a full apology, was something he’d been waiting to hear for years.
“Thank you.”
She nods back.
A pause stretches between them before she tentatively asks, “They really did not make it?”
Grace looks away from the screen. “No. No, my memory’s not the best, it never was, even before everything, but I think I remember the arm wasn’t as functional as it should have been. I’m pretty sure I wrote it down as a note for you, somewhere among my papers. Though I guess those were glossed over when I was taken away.” A quiet voice he’s hidden for years resurfaces with the mention of his long-gone crew. ‘If you hadn’t struggled, if you had accepted your fate,’ the voice whispers, ‘they would’ve survived.’
Stratt purses her lips, hiding an expression of surprise behind her passive face. “I’m…sorry.”
“It’s–” his response is cut off by a loud knock at the door.
Rocky. Grace must be running late for his class. Shoot.
GRACE SLOW AS ♫♩♪♩♬. Rocky yells out. YOU OLD MAN NOW QUESTION? CLASS WILL BE GONE BY TIME YOU SHOW UP STATEMENT.
Grace laughs at Rocky’s exaggeration. He wasn’t that late. No matter, he can call Stratt later, hopefully.
“Sorry, Stratt. I’m running late for my class. Will I be able to call you at some other time?”
An odd expression crosses across Stratt’s face. “Yes, of course. I’m not going anywhere, after all.”
Grace chuckles and waves goodbye, before running out to his classroom.