Work Text:
Grace had a tendency to get lost in his own head, especially when it came to experiments, but it had never been all that bad. Never to the point where he’d forget to eat, drink, or go to the bathroom. But, he supposes when being tasked with saving the Earth, it can be easy to hyper focus.
So it was no surprise that he didn’t notice Rocky approach him until the Eridian pulled on his pant leg.
“Huh?” Grace asked, going from hoping from table to table to being stuck in the middle of the lab by a claw against his leg. He blinked down at the vents on top of Rocky’s carpace.
“Grace about to have seizure again.”
Grace waved one hand absentmindedly, tentatively lifting his leg to try and shake the Eridian off. “No, thanks, I’m…” He paused. “I am?”
“Yes. Rocky hear coming.”
“Ah.” Grace said, staring down at the alien dumbly. Grace knew he had felt a little sluggish, not to mention the ache that bloomed across the front of his head throughout the day, but he chucked that up to his few hours of sleep he and staring at the computer for too long.
“You lie down now.” Rocky instructed, giving another tug against Grace's pants, breaking Grace out of his thoughts.
For a moment, Grace just stared. But Rocky seemed, desperate, and he was so tired.. lying down couldn’t hurt, right?
“Okay.” He said eventually, peeling off his gloves and tossing them onto a nearby table. He’d clean that up later. He then set aside his goggles, before heading the ladder leading down into the dormitory, which Rocky had already disappeared down.
At the bottom, Rocky waited next to Armando, whose sensor was blinking up at Grace as he descended. He had to wonder if the ‘blinking’ had a function or if it was a way to make the robot more human-like. I mean, why make it unnecessarily scary when medical devices were already so intimating? He might’ve known the reason in the past, before the coma scrambled up his brain.
He hated that thought, so he quickly shook it from his head as his feet hit against the metal floor.
“Grace lay down now.” Rocky repeated, pointing to the pillow he had placed onto the floor.
“I’m going, I’m going.” Grace huffed, lowering himself down to the ground slowly. He awkwardly arranged himself on his back. Armando’s head hovered above him, spinning in place, its ‘fingers’ opening and closing.
“On side.” Rocky reprimanded, gently nudging the side of Grace's stomach. “So no liquid get into breathing holes.”
“Oh! Uhm, right.” Grace said, quickly adjusting himself. Once he got situated, he felt as Rocky pressed against his back, right between his shoulder blades. The presence and warmth were comforting.
He heard a whirr from above him, and looked up to watch as Armando also repositioned itself, turning in a nonsensical pattern above him. He swallowed thickly, and looked back down.
He felt oddly vulnerable at the moment. It was very reminiscent to his first and only prostate exam he had a few years ago after a big cancer scare, espically because of the stark white walls and floor.
…Yeah, he’d prefer not to think about that, either.
“So, uhm,” He cleared his throat, and felt as Rocky perked up behind him.
“Yes?”
“When do you think it’s gonna happen?” Grace stained his neck to look back, being met almost face to face with the bottom of Rocky’s carapace, before he was abruptly pushed back to lay perfectly on his side.
“Do not know.” Rocky said, his notes half an octave lower. “Just know happened soon. Stay still.”
For some god known reason—probably something to do with Graces self worth issues— he felt worse for Rocky than he did himself. When he had his first spell, it had been.. bad. Well, no worse than typical seizure is, he guessed. Grace had bitten his tongue pretty badly, and had some aches and pain because of how Rocky—in his panicked confusion— had tried to hold him still. But what he thought was the worst of it was how it had affected Rocky.
The Eridian definitely had some underlying trauma after the death of his crew, and after the entire Let’s Go Fishing incident, his fears were only made worse. But before Graces seizure, Rocky had finally begun to heal from that. The progress was minuscule, but Grace had been helping and reassuring him the best he could.
It had been nice while it lasted.
This second spell—if Rocky even was right, and he was about to have another seizure— would probably only worsen Rocky’s obsession with his health. The Eridian was already sticking much closer than he used to. He wouldn’t even leave whatever compartment of the ship Grace was on. Not to mention that Grace was sure Rocky was over using the new xenonite suit he had crafted. Rocky had explained how it worked in detail, but most of it went over Grace's head. He was no engineer, heck, he barely even grasped the concept of xenonite. He did know that the suit wasn’t as strong or secure as his ball, though. If something went wrong, and Rocky got hurt for a second time all because of Grace, he’d never forgive himself.
Grace let himself go perfectly still, if only in order to soothe Rocky’s frantic worry. “Okay, buddy. Staying still.”
“Good.”
“…”
“You know, Rock,” Grace began after a few minutes of silence. If he was going to be forced to sit here until he began to convulse, he was at least going to make conversation. It would soothe his anxiety. “Why do you think I’m about to have another one?”
“Hm?”
Grace almost began to shift to look at the Eridian again, but stopped himself before he could. “The seizure, I mean.” He said. “You caught it before even I did. How do you know?”
Grace heard the familiar, rhythmic click clicks that Rocky’s claws made when he was fiddling with them.
“Mm. Do not know how to explain. Can just.. sense.”
“Huh. Weird. Is it like.. a physical change?”
“Yes. Little. Brain begins to make more noise.”
Grace shivered at that, and he felt Rocky tense up in anticipation, but no convulsions came. Yet.
“My brain makes a noise?”
“No.” Rocky replied. “Is why when make noise, is concerning. Happen last time, but did not know what meant. Thought maybe weird normal human thing. Was not.”
“Yeah. Was not.” Grace said, eyes furrowing in thought. “That doesn’t make sense. How woul..” Grace began, before slowly trailing off as an abrupt shift went through his brain. He couldn’t describe it much better than that. Just.. a shift.
Rocky perked up. “Grace?”
“I, uhm, ha,” Grace began panickedly, squeezing his eyes close, suddenly unable focus his gaze, but leaving them unfocused was further hurting his head. This was his middle ground
He felt the pressure against his back increase as Rocky pressed impossibly closer. “Grace?” He repeated. “Grace, speak. Please.”
“I, uh, am definitely feeling it now.” Grace forced out, voice growing increasingly weak as he tried to suppress the sudden nausea building his stomach.
“Feeling what, question?” Rocky asked, and when Grace didn’t immediately answer, he pressed on. “What Grace feel? Grace, question? Please.”
“The seizure.” Grace slurred, pressing his eyes further closed. He resisted the urge to curl into a ball. Vaguely, he heard Mary chime something from above him, but he couldn’t make out what it said. “It’s, uh, definitely about to start. I—I think.”
Rocky let out a low sound, and Grace felt as two claws went to steady him, one against his lower back, and another on his shoulder.
Grace took in a few shallow breaths through his nose, desperately trying to battle the rising fear under his skin. That, out of everything, was the worst part. Because despite his fight he couldn’t beat it back down.
“Yeah.” He said breathily, if only to attempt to keep his bodily atonmy for a moment longer.
He’d like to say it was over quick, but it wasn’t. He was laid against the ground like that for.. he didn’t know how long. All he could do was wait and breathe through the symptoms.
Rocky hated this with every bit of his being. Biotic and abiotic.
He wasn’t used to being powerless. In the mechanical field, everything could be fixed. No matter what went wrong. If it couldn’t, a new version with some tweaks could just be made.
He wasn’t used to being powerless, but he knew the feeling all too well. He felt it for almost fifty human years as he drifted across the Tau Ceti system. In an empty, dead silent ship. Made for twenty three Eridians with only one occupant.
Then Grace came along, and he wasn’t helpless anymore. With Grace, he could fix his dying home.
He wished he could say he forget the feeling of feeling so helpless, but he hadn’t. Eridians remember everything. The feeling was carved into the very filaments of his muscles, but he thought he’d at least would never have to feel it again.
Standing behind his best friend—his saving grace, the only reason any of this was possible— as his muscles rapidly tightened then loosened, the feeling was worse than ever. Not even during the Fishing Trip was he this useless.
Mary couldn’t even give him any kind of insight. It gave him steps to take to ensure Graces safety during these episodes, and reasons to why they happened, but no way to stop them.
He was helpless. And he hated that.
“Grace okay.” Rocky hummed, despite the fact the human had stopped responding to him sixty eight seconds ago. His eyes were rolled up into his skull, and he was letting out choked out little noises and gasps, hands jerking useless in front of him. Grace was helpless to this just as much as Rocky was. Rocky didn’t like that idea, either. The least he could was soothe him.
“Rocky Armando here. Grace okay.” He lulled. Grace made a pained g-ghhk sound that made Rocky want to do nothing more than make this stop.
Rocky watched as the time between the muscles tightening and loosening got smaller and smaller, until eventually Grace was lying limp on the dormitory floor. Only then did Rocky’s incessant, deep purring tone down in order to not overwhelm him.
“Grace?” He asked lowly. Grace took in a harsh, wet inhale, but other stayed terrifyingly limp. Rocky began to glide his claw up and down his friends back.
“Grace okay.” Rocky repeated for what felt like the hundredth time. At that, Grace let out a panicked noise. He blinked a few times, eyes wandering around the room, never fully focusing on one thing.
Rocky continued to twitter and whistle affirmations, half to soothe himself and half to soothe Grace.
Rocky kept up his quiet, but deep humming. He didn’t try to speak past simple, calming phrases. He doubted Grace could understand it anyway. He had claimed in the past to enjoy it when Rocky hummed so deeply it vibrated his carapace. He compared it to a small earth animal. It didn’t exactly hurt Rocky, either. It was a soothing vibration, something used for an Eridian ritual that humans had no equivalent of.
He petted Graces sweat soaked hair away from his forehead, and kicked up his purring when Grace let out a whimper.
Once Rocky was sure that another seizure wasn’t going to kick off, he settled against Graces midsection, even if the disgusting digestion sounds of the human body assaulted his noise receptors.
This episode had clearly taken a lot of Grace. More so than the last one did, so Rocky didn’t try to push Grace to get onto the bed. He was still confused and clearly scared, if his racing heart didn’t tell that enough the way he immediately curled around Rocky did.
He’d probably be out of it for the next while, and Rocky didn’t want to risk causing him to panic by trying to move him. If Grace began to fall asleep, he’d consider it, not wanting him to suffer any ached and pains. But for now, Rocky was content to just sit with his friend on the floor as he recovered.
As Grace’s breathing and heart steadily began to slow, Rocky was affirmed that he wasn’t completely helpless.
He couldn’t fix this situation entirely, and it was very probable Grace would have further episodes in the future, but sometimes in the mechanical industry, compromises had to be made. Rocky couldn’t completely remedy this, but he could help. Grace would never go through another seizure alone, Rocky would be sure of that much.