Chapter Text
One of the things that Simon loved about being a saturation diver was the community. Everybody knew everybody.
They didn’t know everything about everybody. His team didn’t know everything about him, nor did they need to. Simon, however, knew way too much about his coworkers simply because the lot were all oversharers. He knew who was married, who had kids, who had recently had a break up, and all the family drama that made him feel like a long time member of the families that he’d never even met.
On the other hand, his coworkers knew a fair amount about Simon. He’s single, lives in Oregon, grew up in the Northeast, enjoys the outdoors, a pretty good artist, will almost never talk about his family or life before the age of twenty-five, and religion was a topic Simon wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole.
That was the official Simon Park “cannon lore” as Jack liked to call it. Jack knew a little bit more than the rest of the team. He had befriended Simon outside of their work and the two hung out occasionally when they got back onshore. Simon had met his family and trusted Jack with a few more details, but nothing too heavy.
The last thing Simon wanted was any of his coworkers to be worried about him on the job. He was a competent diver and had proven himself. Being vulnerable about where he came from wouldn’t take that away from him, but as much as people pretended it changed nothing, it always changed something. Even if it were subtle, there would be a change and Simon would notice it.
And everyone was respectful about it. No one pushed. They were all professionals who understood their environment and kept the peace. When you spend weeks in such tight quarters with your coworkers and no escape, boundaries are inviolable.
Their first shift of an eight month project was wrapping up when they discovered something wrong while on a dive. There was contaminated oil, an unaccounted for variable in the very extensive work plan. A handful of scientists had arrived a day before decompression ended and were dying to get their hands on one of the divers who had actually seen what was going on and could explain where the sample had come from.
Simon had volunteered to stay the extra week. Even with the bonus pay, no one else was willing to consider it. Jack might have stayed if Simon asked him to. But Jack had spent the last week talking about his plans once he got onshore and Simon wasn’t going to stand in his way.
It was just a few extra days hanging around the diving support vessel. It’d be like a little vacation, getting to hang out at sea and actually enjoy being on a boat for a change instead of working. It was still work, but the work was babysitting a handful of scientists and making sure they didn’t get lost on the ship while they worked whatever magic it was that they did.
In hindsight, he probably should have tried to convince Jack to stay the extra week with him so he’d have some company. The scientists who had been brought in were extremely different people that Simon had no idea how to navigate. How did he forget he was an introvert when he volunteered for this?
They were good people, friendly and curious, but they didn’t seem to have an off switch. So when lunch came around on the first day, Simon showed them to the cafeteria, and then chose a small table in the back to eat his lunch in peace.
He’d noticed one of the scientists heading his way before it was entirely obvious. Tall and lanky, blonde hair, glasses, visible extrovert given the expression on his face. Simon had picked this table because he was not interested in hearing anymore science, he wanted his half hour of peace before going back to the lab.
“Hi, Simon?” The scientist was standing across the table, wanting his attention. His badge was neatly hanging around his neck: Dr. Ryland Grace.
“Dr. Grace.”
“You can just call me Grace, or Ryland, I really don’t care. You’re welcome to join us for lunch if you want.” He nodded over to another table where the group of scientists were sitting, chatting loudly.
“Thanks, but I don’t talk shop at lunch.” Simon chuckled.
“I can respect that.” A pause. “Uh, can I join you? Or did you want to be alone?”
“You can sit. I’d usually eat with my team but they’ve all gone home. I go home in a week.” Simon shrugged. “Someone had to stay and babysit you scientists.”
“That’s unfortunate.” Ryland settled into the seat across from Simon. “Luckily for you, I don’t think we’re going to get into that much trouble. The project is pretty straight forward, nothing should explode, or burn, or anything like that.”
“You’re talking shop.” Simon reported, not looking up from his sandwich.
“Dang it.” Ryland muttered to himself. “Ok, so you’re going home at the end of the week. So where’s home for you?”
“These days? Oregon.”
“That sounds nice. On the coast?”
“Coos Bay.” Simon nodded. “Like 140 miles north of the California state line if you take Route 101.”
“Why do you know that?”
“People always ask where it is, so I need a reference point.” Simon shrugged. “What about yourself?”
“San Francisco.” Ryland said easily. “Been living with my college roommate and his partner for a while now. I’m not in one place long enough to justify paying rent right now. Also, have you seen rent prices these days? They don’t mind. Rocky’s family basically adopted me anyway when we were college freshmen, I’m only half joking by the way. Plus those two own a house in San Francisco. Like who can afford that in this economy?”
“They sound nice.” Simon mused.
“They are the best.” Ryland agreed. “Uh, so how’d you get into saturation diving?”
“That’s a work question.”
“Is it?” Ryland dramatically acted startled. “Uh…”
Rylands voice trailed off and Simon kept his eyes down, eating his food quietly as the scientist in front of him tried, increasingly desperate, to think of something, anything.
“All my questions are about diving.” Ryland finally admitted. “Uh, do you have anything you’d like to talk about?”
“Not really.” Simon admitted. “We can just eat quietly.”
“Can I ask you questions about diving after lunch?”
“Sure.”
❖❖❖
Ryland was a lot like Jack when Simon first met him.
Jack didn’t care that Simon wasn’t the most open about anything. He was going to get Simon to open up no matter how long it took. Jack had the advantage of the hyperbaric habitat on his side. The most Simon could do to get away from Jack was put on his noise canceling headphones while they were in saturation.
It was actually one of Simon’s greatest fears about moving from commercial diving to saturation diving, at the end of the day, you’re stuck with your coworkers. Simon had spent a lot of time talking with other divers, talking to his therapist, and preparing for living in close quarters with complete strangers for a month straight.
It hadn’t been as bad as he expected. There were times that were difficult to handle. But the people were good, they respected boundaries. And not having much else to do in his down time, Simon slowly opened up to his new work family.
The first family he’d had in a long time, probably since his mother passed away.
So now, three years into his career as a saturation diver, Simon had the best people skills he had ever had in his life, courtesy of his team and their living conditions. Ryland didn’t phase Simon nearly as much as he would have if they met five years ago.
Ryland had set up his workstation off to the side of the lab space, in the area where Simon had claimed a spare desk. As social as Ryland was, Simon noticed that he wasn’t good at working when the people around him were idling or off topic.
Ryland had rolled his chair over to Simon, claiming he needed a mental break from looking at samples under a microscope and the two had struck up conversation.
“So you’re a molecular biologist, not a marine biologist.” Simon observed, he’d heard some of the other scientists joking with Ryland the day before. “Why are you here?”
“Oh, well I was working in academia but that didn’t work out well for me.” Ryland sighed as he leaned back in his chair. He seemed to love leaning back as far as the chair would let him and Simon was convinced he was going to fall over backwards when he did it.
“I have some friends from college who do government research and they’ve been recommending me for miscellaneous projects like this for the last couple years.” Ryland shrugged. “And I can’t complain. At least I get to still work in my field, even if it’s something new every three or four months.”
“Do you enjoy what you’re doing?” Simon asked.
“Like fifty percent of the time.” Ryland admitted. “I’m working on getting my teacher credentials. I think I’m going to give teaching a try for at least three years and then, I don't know, might come back to bouncing around projects if I don’t like it enough to stay.”
It startled Simon just how easily Ryland accepted that he didn’t seem to have a solid ten year plan. Simon knew exactly where he wanted to be in ten years: in ten years he’d be forty, and as long as he was in good enough shape, he’d still be diving. And he was determined to still be in good enough shape in ten years. If not, there were dozens of retired divers working at Iron Lung Diving Group, he’d gracefully pivot to one of those roles the minute his body wasn’t able to handle the diving anymore.
Ryland maybe knew what he was doing for the next three years. Maybe. And even then, it wasn’t clear just how much he’d done to make progress towards that plan.
“I forgot to ask you how you got into saturation diving.” Ryland remembered. “Since we’re talking about career paths and stuff.”
“Didn’t go to high school, started with welding, moved to commercial diving, and now I’m here.” Simon answered easily. It was a well practiced answer that he gave everyone.
“That’s cool. Trades like welding don’t get enough respect.” Ryland mused. “College isn’t for everyone. Took me a while to get my head out of the clouds and realize that.”
❖❖❖
Simon didn’t have much to do. He’d presented everything the dive team had found to the group of scientists, made sure they had all the correct data and samples, and now his job was to sit around for a few days and answer the occasional clarifying question.
He was getting paid to sit around and do nothing productive, which led him to bring his sketch book to the lab. The lab had some interesting equipment to look at, and therefore sketch.
“Lunch?” Ryland asked as walked over to Simon’s desk.
Simon laid his sketchbook down and looked up at the scientist standing above him. “Sure thing.”
“Dude! That’s incredible!” Ryland gawked at his rough sketch of the microscope. “Wow, you’re really good.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice.” Simon shrugged, closing his sketchbook and standing up. “Lunch?”
The pair walked to the cafeteria as Ryland talked about the project he was working on to get it out of his system before they stepped into the cafeteria and Simon shut it down.
They grabbed their lunches and made their way over to the same small table in the back.
“Did you ever consider a career in art?” Ryland asked as he popped open his bag of chips.
“Art wasn’t an option.” Simon shrugged. “I needed something to pay the bills and give my life structure.”
“Fair enough.” Ryland agreed. “I definitely knew that feeling of needing structure. It’s one of the reasons I stayed in school so long. I wasn’t ready to enter the real world.”
“Is college really that different?” Simon asked. “Most people I know who went to college say that they were in the real world.”
Ryland blushed at that. “I mean, yeah. College is the real world. It’s not high school any more. You have to take care of yourself, but I wasn't a responsible adult. And neither was Rocky, for the record!”
“What’s that mean?”
“We both had scholarships so we didn’t have to work to pay for college. And don’t get me wrong, I was a good student. You don’t go get your PhD if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing! But like on the weekends… I went to a lot of parties, had no responsibilities, got drunk and usually woke up on a stranger’s couch not really sure where I was.”
Simon shook his head at that. “I can’t imagine.”
“Me being like that or the lifestyle in general?”
“That kind of lifestyle.” Simon clarified.
Ryland shrugged. “Everyone’s experience is different. But that was my experience. I own it.”
“If I could go back in time and tell myself that ten years ago,” Simon agreed as he picked up his water and gave a mock toast.
Ryland scrambled to grab his water and toasted Simon’s. It was ridiculous, they were sitting in a cafeteria on a boat, making a toast over lunch with their water bottles.
“So, who partied more, you or your roommate?” Simon teased.
“Rocky.” Ryland said firmly. “He’s way more social than I am if you can believe it.”
“I can’t.”
“It’s true. His vision isn’t the best, so places like clubs and parties where it’s crowded and dark are hard for him, but most people don’t notice. He navigates spaces like he owns them.” Ryland explained. “And after enough drinks he acts like it too.”
“What’s he do for work? You made it sound like he’s doing pretty well for himself before.”
“Oh, he’s doing just fine. He’s in engineering, he majored in mechanical, minored in computer science, and then got his masters in electrical.” Ryland listed off. “He could have easily gotten a PhD like I did but he got his dream job offer and was dating Adrian at the time so he decided he didn’t need more college on top of everything else.”
❖❖❖
Once Simon’s drawing of the microscope was done, he wasn’t sure what to work on next. He made a few rough sketches of the scientists standing around, but they moved around the room so much he never got to add much detail to them.
Ryland moved just as much as the rest of them, especially when collaborating. But when he was in his seat working, he didn’t move much.
And his seat was right next to Simon’s.
So Ryland Grace had unknowingly volunteered himself to be Simon’s model simply due to proximity and convenience. Today was the perfect day for it too. Ryland had himself set up with his samples, a laptop, and headphones. He was completely unaware of the world outside of his little bubble.
And when Ryland finally looked up from his work, he was often chatting with Simon. So Ryland did this entirely to himself. And while he was curious about what Simon was working on, he didn’t seem to notice that Simon was intentionally keeping it out of his line of sight.
“You’ve been listening to me talk nonstop for days now.” Ryland commented over lunch. “You don’t talk about yourself much.”
“Not much to say.” Simon shrugged.
“Shapiro says that every project I work on I adopt an introvert.” Ryland mused. “I guess you’re my adopted introvert. Congratulations or my condolences, you let me know which is correct.”
“Unfortunately that seems to be how I make all my friends.” Simon admitted.
“Congratulations?” Ryland tried playfully. “So we’re friends?”
“Sure.” Simon relented. He was drawing Ryland while the scientist worked, they were at least acquaintances.
“Ok, if we’re friends then I need to know more about you.” Ryland decided.
Simon really should have thought about his answer before just agreeing with Ryland. Ryland was nice and he just wanted to know the man he’d been talking to non stop for days now. Ryland was harmless, he liked people, he wanted to get to know Simon. It was harmless.
“Ok, we’ll start easy.” Ryland decided. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Green.”
“Mine is yellow.”
“Favorite food?”
“Bibimbap.” Simon actually found himself smiling, he could offer Ryland more than one word answers. “I’m going to have to make some when I go home. A neighbor I had when I was in the northeast taught me how to make it. It’s probably the best food there is. You?”
Ryland looked very embarrassed. He muttered out a very quick and quiet answer before shoving a bite of food in his mouth.
“I didn’t catch that.” Simon raised an eyebrow.
Ryland glared at him as he chewed his food and swallowed. “Sour Skittles.”
Simon just stared at him. “That counts?”
“Yes!”
❖❖❖
“Hey, I’m flying home today.” Simon said as he stood over Ryland’s workstation. He had his duffle bag in one hand and a backpack slung over his shoulder. “Good luck on your research.”
“Thanks Simon! You’ve been a ton of help getting me, and everyone else, up to speed.” Ryland pushed his chair away from the desk. He stood up, holding out his hand. “Great to work with you.”
Simon gave him a firm handshake. “You too.”
When Ryland let go of his hand, Simon pulled his sketchbook out of his backpack and opened it, retrieving a page he had already carefully removed that morning. “Here. This is for you.”
Ryland took the paper and held it like it was made of gold. “You sketched me?”
“Yup. I had some free time when you’d get absorbed in your work.” Simon shrugged. “You’d sit in front of me for hours at a time barely moving.”
“Thank you, I love it!”
“It’s good to be back.” Jack stretched out his back as he and Simon stepped aboard the massive diving support vessel.
Simon hummed. “I was getting restless sitting around on land.”
“Tell me about it. I’d rather been on the open sea.” Jack sighed. “Maybe I should have stayed with you to babysit those scientists. Must have been nice just getting to hang out on the DSV.”
“It was alright. They’re nice enough. They never stop talking about work though.” Simon rolled his eyes.
“Yikes. Big red flag.” Jack made a face. “Buncha nerds. Hopefully you weren’t bored to tears.”
“Nah.”
Jack laughed as he opened the door and he and Simon stepped inside.
They were the last ones to arrive in the lab. The science team was giving the divers an update on their progress and possible observations and samples they were hoping the divers could collect while working.
Ryland wasn’t part of the presentation. He was off to the side of the room, hunched over some equipment. Simon spotted him pretty easily, he was curious if Ryland would look up enough for him to notice that Simon had returned.
The briefing was pretty quick. The divers lingered around the lab with the few minutes they had to spare before moving on to the next briefing and update about the project.
“Do not ever try to sneak up on me.” Simon warned gruffly, crossing his arms over his chest. “I’ll break your nose by accident.”
“Sorry. Noted. Won’t happen again.” Ryland’s hands quickly shot up in surrender. “Fancy seeing you here, Simon.”
“Jack, this is Dr. Ryland Grace, molecular biologist," Simon introduced. “Ryland, this is my diving partner, Jack.”
“Nice to meet you!” Ryland smiled widely as he shook Jack's hand. “Simon was a big help getting the science team up to speed during our first week here. He also became my mandated adopted introvert.”
“He’s my adopted introvert too!” Jack laughed. “I think it’s the only way Simon makes friends.”
“Hilarious you two.” Simon sighed. “Sounds like progress is being made on the contaminated oil situation.”
“Yup. Looks like we’ll get to go home by December. Which is good, it’s freezing cold up here.” Ryland pulled at his lab coat. “I try to go get fresh air and my face is freezing after a minute.”
“What are you saying? This weather is excellent.” Jack scoffed in mock offense.
“Listen man, I'm from California.” Ryland whined dramatically.
“Simon. Jack. Let’s go!” Someone shouted from the hallway.
“When will you guys be in the cafeteria?” Ryland asked quickly as the two picked up their bags.
“Around six, you actually going to make it there on your own?”
“I’ll set an alarm on my phone!” Ryland promised.
❖❖❖
Ryland ran into the cafeteria just after six o’clock like he was being chased. He nearly tripped in the doorway, wildly looking around before spotting Simon and waving.
He calmed down enough to go get himself some food and look like a normal person while doing it, before walking over to join Simon and some of the other divers at their table.
“I wasn’t expecting to see you back here.” Ryland commented as he took a seat at the table.
“This is a long term project. You might be done by December but I’m contracted to work through May.” Simon shrugged easily.
“Yikes.” Ryland made a face. “I can’t imagine.”
“So what are you doing once you wrap up research here?” Jack asked. “Simon said you were a free agent.”
Ryland blinked at him in confusion. “Uh… I’m going to start teaching. I think I want to teach high school biology. Possibly AP Bio? I guess it depends what school I end up at and what courses are offered.”
“So you started in academia, now you’re doing random government research, and next you’re going to teach high school.” Simon listed out. “What was your plan when you went to college anyway?”
“Academia was the original plan, but plans can change.” Ryland shrugged. “I’m just thankful I didn’t end up in a position where I had to take the first customer service job I could find. I would have been fired in a week, I can’t deal with the general public.”
“But you like people.” Simon pointed out.
“The general public is stupid, I’d run my mouth and get fired.” Ryland admitted easily. “That’s a guarantee.”
“So your solution is to teach high school?” Jack laughed. “I don’t think that’s much better if I’m being honest. I hear teachers don’t get paid anything in the States. And teenagers? No thank you.”
“It would be about twice minimum wage.” Ryland corrected. “Still not a lot in the city, but Adrian won’t let Rocky charge me rent, so ideally if I’m smart about it I can get some savings going and maybe get my own place.”
“Who?” Jack asked.
“College roommate and his spouse. They’re great friends but…” Ryland shrugged. “It’s like living at home with your parents when you’re in your thirties.”
“Anyway I was a TA while I was working on my PhD. I taught freshman, college freshman aren’t that different from high schoolers right? It’s like a year difference.” Ryland reasoned.
Two seats down to Simon’s left Todd was snickering, looking over at Ryland. Todd had three kids, two in high school and one in college. If Todd was laughing that was not a good sign for Ryland.
“Why’s he laughing? It’s not that different.”
“I haven’t been to either.” Simon held up his hands in surrender. “I have no idea about any of this.”