Chapter Text
Grace sat at the front of the bus, listening to his kids scuffle and fight over window seats. He watched the skyline absentminded as the bus drove to the science lab. The amount of begging he had to do to secure this fieldtrip was embarrassing, but he made it work. He'd gotten a job there and was dying to show off the cool stuff in there in the name of science. He'd even made an acquaintance by the name of Ricardo Ortis, but he was comfortable with the name 'Rocky' for short. They got along really well for such a short time, too, doing all sorts of science like looking at animal genes to find the cure for diseases, testing out new technology to help with pollution, making new material out of biproducts.
He'd even met Rocky's wife, Adrien, and she was nice. She invited him to dinner one night and made a killer beef stroganoff. She also had a sense of fashion too, making designs and trying them out, but no one would ever snap them up. It's a bit sad, but both Grace and Rocky are encouraging enough for her to keep pushing.
And then there was Colt. After the UNESCO conference incident, he had pushed his twin away. It was dumb, it was stupid. Ryland got his teacher's license, and Colt had sent his congratulations, and they attempted to fix their relationship. Then Colt had his accident, and he tried to be there, but was met with pushback. After some time, they began to reconnect after Metalstorm. Afterall, they were all that they had left after-
The bus jostled Grace out of his thoughts as it began to slow down. He grabbed one of the railings and stood up, using his free hand to quell the unruly kids.
"Okay class, my hand is up. We're just about to reach our destination, so we have to begin to settle down," He called out over the noise.
The kids, one by one, began to settle, but still bounced a little with excitement.
"We can't just be a bunch of crazy cats when we're out and about, there has to be boundaries. There are scientists in there doing real work, so don't interrupt them. What they're doing is dangerous without the right protection, so let's stay close together, don't stray too far or we all get into trouble. Do we understand?" he said with his 'you better listen or i tell you're parents' voice. Several kids nodded in acknowledgment. Good kids, and that's what he liked.
The bus stopped abruptly, nearly sending Grace face first into the floor. A few kids laughing at his misfortune.
"Are you ok, Mr Grace?" Peter asked. He gave a thumbs up as he straightened himself up.
"Alrighty, then, single file please, back of the bus out first," he commanded as the bus doors opened. The kids filed out, squishing themselves as they rushed out. Grace waited till the last kid before grabbing his bag and jumped out himself. With that, the school trip began.
_
The lobby was full of people walking around, muttering to each other as the school tour filed in, their eyes wide as they took it all in. Grace rushed to the front of the mass of kids and began leading them to their assigned tour guide. Turns out, they assigned Martin DuBios, a fellow scientist who had been there for much longer than even Rocky was. He began leading them through to the labs where they were trying to figure out how to fish microplastics out of water, which DuBios had said seemed more like an engineering problem, but there was science behind it. They even ran into Rocky, who wore a harness that had an extra limb to his back to 'get more done'. He gave them a friendly wave before turning back to something he was working on.
Grace trailed behind the group, keeping an eye on the kids who eagerly asked their guide questions, in which he answered in the same energy. He looked in on the science team working on the animal gene sequencing, and could see them beginning to panic just slightly, looking around for something.
"Hey kid, get back here," DuBios suddenly yelled, dragging Grace back to the present just in time to see Kevin running off from the group. Grace dropped his bag and took off after him, Abbey calling out for Kevin to get back to the group.
It didn't take him long to catch up to Kevin, but it still left him winded. He scooped Kevin up and walked back to the group. "What did I say, Kevin? No running off, we had a deal," he said sternly.
"Sorry, it was just going so slow," Kevin snarked. Grace rolled his eyes as he reached the group and put him down. "Make sure he doesn't run off again," He said and Abbey dutefuly saluted and wrapped one of her arms around one of Kevin's.
"I am so sorry about that, Mr DuBios, i really am," he said as his slung his bag over his shoulder.
"Quite alright, Mr Grace, but if it happens again, we will have to kick you and your class out, no exceptions," Martin said sternly. He turned that stern gaze onto the students, who shrunk back a little.
"Way to go, Kevin, you always get us into trouble," Peter scolded.
The rest of the field trip went without a hitch, and as they piled back onto the bus, Grace felt a tap on his shoulder. He spun to find Rocky behind him, a stack of paper under his arm.
"Hey, Rock, what's up?" Grace said, giving his friend a tap on his shoulder
"Adrien wants to know if Grace still coming for dinner on Saturday, question?" Rocky asked in his weird way. Not many other people put up with how he talks, but Grace didn't mind it. Actually it gave him more of a personality quirk than anything.
"Yep, wouldn't miss it for the world, Rock," Grace said and he put out his fist, Rocky returning the fist bump in kind
"Great, around 6, question?" Rocky said as Grace got onto the bus, and Grace gave a thumbs up as the bus doors closed. With all the kids settling in, Grace faced the students, looking at all of them.
"Ok, class, that went really well. Almost 100%. Almost," With that last world, he looked at Kevin over his glasses. "I will have to have another chat with your parents, Kevin. What you did went against what I instructed the class to follow," he added
"Yeah, Kevin," Abbey said from next to him. Kevin simply stuck out his tongue in response.
The bus started up and Grace lost his footing yet again, before climbing into his seat and putting his bag down next to him
_
The bus pulled back into the school lot in time for home, and as the kids ran off to their parents, Grace hopped of the bus and made his way to his bike, when he was tackled into a giant hug.
"Hey there, little bro, keeping the kids in line, and how's that going?" said the person crushing him, and Grace looked up to see a face just like his own.
"Colt, what are you doing here?" Grace asked his twin brother.
"Oh, i was just in the neighborhood with Jods, thought I'd give you a quick visit. How's it been?" Colt let him go and gave a shrug. "Fine, I got a second job downtown at the science lab," he said as his began unchaining his bike.
"Oh really? Look at you go, little bro. They're not treating you bad, are they?" his brother asked as Grace reached into his back for his raincoat.
"No no, they're all actually really nice. I've made a few- OW!" Grace yelped as something stabbed him with sharp pain. He pulled his hand out just to see a spider disappear into his bag, a bite mark welling up on the back of his hand like a angry red stain.
"Hey, you good, Ryland?" Colt asked as he was rubbing his hand. The pain went quick but now he wasn't feeling too good. Nausea hit him like a wave, almost buckling him under its wait. His head suddenly felt to light, and when he put his hand up to rub it, it came back with sweat.
"I'm fine, i just- i just really don't feel too good right now," he said as he staggered, his brother catching him.
"Yeah, no way you're riding home, I'll have Jody take us there. What, you get nauseous on buses now?" Colt said as he half carried half dragged him to his car. Setting him into the back seat with his bag, Colt hopped into the passenger seat and told Jody to drive. At Colt's instruction, they drove the distance to his apartment. The drive wasn't very long, but it fell like an eternity for Grace. His bones, muscles, his everything hurt. His head felt so stuffy, kind of like when you get a cold or flu, except 10 times worse. He fought off blacking out, but didn't know for how much longer, especially when Colt was the one keeping him awake. By the looks of his face, Grace must look terrible. He kept thinking back to his childhood, playing with his twin and older brother, back when he was still alive. Before the accident.
God, he missed him.
When they got there, Grace was barely hanging on to consciousness. He felt like he was dying, but he wasn't. Maybe it was stress from the two jobs and his body just caught up with that fact. Jody and Colt had him take of his jacket, and put on some trackpants before letting him down into his bed and throwing over a bedsheet.
"If you need anything, call us," Colt said, give Grace a quick check over, then leaving. Grace couldn't feel much else except the pain and the exhaustion, and let himself fall into an uneasy sleep.