A/N: Hello FanFiction! I had three surprise vacation days this week, so I decided to edit/post this... Thing. I'm not real sure what it is, but I've really been feeling these two lately. Sorry if it's a bit chippy. Currently editing Chapter 2. Enjoy!
I was lost. Again. You might think that after all those sols on Mars, I would have an enhanced sense of direction. I would be my own Nav system! One could wish. I'd only gotten lost more after being dependent on all those systems for so long. At the time, I thought I was still at NASA. I hadn't left a building, so I probably was. There was this big window open up in front if me, looking out into the courtyard. Pretty. Green is my new favorite color, cause of plants and whatnot. But NOT potatoes! I owe them my life, but I will NEVER eat another one! Ya hear me? NEVER! And I will also NEVER discuss potato skin tea! *shudder*
Ok, got sidetracked. Anyway, I was just wandering around the building, hoping some nice custodian would pick me up, maybe get me some coffee, and give someone a call to come pick me up, cause I was TIRED! Still am. Apparently, I have insomnia now. Woohoo. (Note the sarcasm.)
To my great dismay, no custodian showed up. Crap. But wait! Was that a person I saw?! I ran to check. Nope. 'Alright,' I thought, 'So, I'm stuck here. Why do I always get stranded places?! It's like my superpower or something. I should get on some weird talk show to discuss it.'
Fishing around in my pocket, I found that I had a granola bar. I ate it happily. Not a potato! That's a win in my book.
And then I realized: Now I had no food. Great. There goes my contingency plan! 'Where was everyone?' I wondered. Is there a meeting or something? If there was, I probably would have gotten a bulletin, what with being the favorite medical example in the 3 months that I've been back. (Actually, they just need my file. But they like to see a living, breathing person for some inane reason.) I was gonna go find a person or a pay phone or something, but I was tired. I fell asleep in the middle of the hallway. No regrets.
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Mindy Park was tired of her life. God, you take ONE night shift and the world crashes around you. After the whole Watney incident, her life was a hectic mess. Everyone wanted her assessment of all the images to come through SatCon in the last 10 years. Idiots. She was just in the right place at the right time. No credit was due to her, she thought tiredly.
As she walked down the hallway to the parking lot, she stopped to look out at the courtyard. The hibiscuses always captured her attention with their vibrant colors. She had once had a full garden of them, but they all died after she started working night shifts to try to save a Martian. Wow. Was that really what her life had become?
As she gazed through the window, Mindy noticed something odd in the reflection. Turning around, she stifled a scream as a slumped figure appeared in her vision.
On pure instinct, Mindy rushed over to the figure. Curled up in the middle of the hallway, he appeared to be asleep. Carefully, she inspected his face.
She gasped. Out of all the things to find in the hallway, she had stumbled upon this one: Mark Watney. Why her?!
Carefully, she spoke, "Hey Mark. Wake up before someone sees you. Hello? Can you hear me? Hello?"
No response came.
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I was having a dream about riding a sentient satellite around the Hab, and suddenly it grew a unicorn horn, which ruptured the wall, and we were being sucked into my grandma's vacuum-
Wait. Where was I? Was someone talking to me?
I opened one eye. A pretty young woman was staring back at me, concerned.
"Mark?" She asked cautiously.
"Hi. Just taking a catnap. Nothing to see here," I responded. 'Please leave' I thought.
"Hm. In the middle of the hallway?" She raised a skeptical eyebrow at me accusingly.
I shrugged innocently. "Why not?"
She sighed. "Want some coffee?" She said randomly, seemingly surprising herself as well.
"That'd be great," I replied. Coffee! Woohoo!
"Come on," she said, and I followed happily, ignoring that little buzz in my head of "STRANGER DANGER! STRANGER DANGER!"
We walked down a maze of hallways, me getting even more lost as we go. (Zero sense of direction.) We ended up at a plain door near the conference rooms. The plaque in display read:
'Mindy Park: SatCon and Space Paparazzi'
I grinned. I was gonna like this woman.
"Go in," she said, holding the door open for me. The inside was relatively plain, but with some odd additions. There were at least 10 pillows thrown haphazardly around the room, and aluminum foil covered the window. A coffee maker resided on the desk, by the computer, which the woman moved to. There was also a couch. No idea how, but there was. I'm not complaining.
I took a seat, worn out by the simple act of walking down the hall. Pitiful. She handed me a cup of black coffee, which I took gratefully.
"Who are you?" I asked.
She looked at me. "Mindy Park. Why were you sleeping in the hallway?" She fired back.
"Um...," I thought really hard. Why WAS I sleeping in the hallway? "I just got... Tired? And lost. And my feet hurt. Can I borrow your phone?" I prattled stupidly.
Wordlessly, she handed it over. I turned on the keypad and dialed Lewis's number.
"Hello?" She picked up on the third ring.
"Hey. It's Mark. I'm lost somewhere near a big window and can you come get me?" I begged.
"What? How do you not know where you are?!" Her accusing voice berated my ears.
I winced. "Um, I fell asleep... Sorry?"
She sighed. "I'll send someone to come find you, hang on."
I grinned. SAVED! Woo! "Ok. Thanks. Bye," I hang up the phone and give it back to Mindy.
"Wow. Lewis was pissed!" She said, aiming me a look of sympathy.
I grinned sarcastically. "Pissed is a word. 'Angry as a hippie who found an iPhone 16 on their doorstep' is more like it. Or 'as angry as Kylo Ren when he found out that Rey's parents were really-'" I stopped myself. Rambling again.
Mindy laughed. "I'm sure she would appreciate both of those comparisons. Kylo Ren is badass, and she could easily be a hippie, what with her disco obsession."
I smiled. "True. So true," If Lewis ever wanted to leave retirement, I'd reccomend the career of 'Full time hippie' to her. Seriously.
"So. Uh, I saw your plaque. On the door. I have to ask. 'Space Paparazzi'? Seriously?"
She gave me an odd, guarded look. "Oh, I just needed a title for my job. SatCon is mainly pictures, after all." She squirmed, and her eyes begged me to drop the subject. I did, but what was her deal?
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Mindy was seriously close to having a panic attack. No, really. He was in her office. They were having coffee. Like normal people.
It was the strangest thing she'd ever done.
Here was the guy whose life had become her sole purpose for 549 sols, and then she followed him home, and started losing sleep due to nightmares of him having never made it home at all. Why did she care so much?
He aimed a cocky smile at her. "Nice window statement," he said to her, nodding at the foil-covered window. She had put it up in order to not be put off by the sun on an Earth day, as Mars's day was 40 minutes longer, and she was on the Martian time set.
Mindy cringed internally. "Sore subject. Let's just leave it at late nights. Also where the couch came from, by the way. Dr. Kapoor apparently decided that I was loosing productivity, so he got me this couch to sleep on, so I could be gotten if something came up." Oh God. Why did she say that? Now he would wonder, and she new personally that he never let a question sit.
He gave her the aforementioned curious look. "What?" He stated plainly. "Isn't SatCon a pretty regular job?"
"Normally," Mindy replied, finishing the statement in her head with, 'I was just working tirelessly to save your life. But seriously, don't ask me about it. No big deal. Just let me resume my normal life.' But somehow, the prospect of a steady, normal life without his constant presence unnerved her.
Mark gave her an odd look, but dropped it. Just then, a knock came at her door. It opened to reveal Dr. Kapoor and Commander Lewis. Mark stood up to meet them.
"'Sup, guys?" Mark asked with a grin. "Just sharing a coffee with my new friend, Mindy Park. How'd you find me?"
Lewis gave him an aggravated look. "Mark, everyone who sees you immediately scuttles off to tell their friends. We just followed the gossip."
Mark's smile flattened a bit. "Oh. Yeah, I'm a pretty popular guy," he said to Mindy. "Just look at this hot body!" He flexed his skinny arm at her with a cocky look.
Mindy blushed. "Very hot," she agreed sarcastically.
Venkat gave Lewis an exasperated look. "WHY did you go choose back for this guy?"
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I love bugging Venkat. And Lewis. And pretty much everyone I meet.
Lewis shot me an annoyed look. "And to think; I risked jail for this immature idiot!" She gave me a little shove.
"Jail? What jail?" I asked. Seeing Lewis's guilty face, I continued. "What did you guys do?"
Lewis gave me a warning look. "Later. You need to get home and sleep, before Beck kills you."
I groaned. Time to go back to my apartment, pretend to sleep for a while, give up, watch TV, finally sleep for two hours, wake up before dawn, and drink way too much coffee. Yay.
"Okay, whatever. Bye, Mindy. Give me a call sometime. Maybe we can have coffee," I told her, a little cautiously. She was a little odd, but nice. She didn't baby me when she found me in the hall. I say that's a win.
She looked at me happily. "I'd love that. Talk to you later!" She gave me a wave as we exit the office.
I gave Lewis a pointed look as she, Venkat, and I continued down the hall to her car.
"Talk," I ordered.
She shot me an annoyed look. "So, you know the Rich Purnell maneuver?" I nodded. "Well, we got it as a coded file in Vogel's
personal email. NASA had vetoed it-"
"For good reason!" Venkat interjected.
Lewis glared at him, effectively shutting him up. "Yes, there was a reason, so I put it to vote. The unanimous vote was to come get you, and so NASA had to send up a supply probe, or we would all die, which is really bad for PR. Technically, the whole crew could be jailed for disobeying clear government orders, but Martinez and I could have also ended up court marshaled."
My mouth fell open as she talked. "Why did you do that?" I asked incredulously.
Lewis shrugged. "Ask the crew," she answered tiredly. "It would have been worth it to me, anyway."
I gave her a grateful look. "Thank you. Thank you so much." I say that a lot now. Great. Now my sleep deprivation was causing emotions. No! Bad! I WILL NOT react (now). I'll just yell at all of them later. At the same time. She'll love that!
"No problem," Lewis said loftily. "Let's get you home.
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Mindy collapsed onto her spinny chair. 'Well, that could have been worse,' she thought. Actually, wait. It went pretty badly. The one topic she REALLY didn't want to discuss came up. Mindy had no idea why she didn't want Mark to know that she was the one who noticed he was alive. Maybe she just wanted him to treat her as the average human she knew she was.
Mark seemed nice, at least. And he wanted to see her again! Mindy smiled. Wait. Why did she care? It's not like the questions she wanted to ask we're socially acceptable. 'Hey, Mark. When you were on Mars, did you think you would die?' See? Not acceptable.
Oh well. Mindy was just glad to have seen him in person. She had been glued to the television as it aired the Ares III landing, and had wept uncontrollably as he set foot on the launch pad, and took a sick day from work to recover. Seeing him in person proved to be difficult, as he had been held up in medical recovery for two months, and had just not crossed paths with him since he had come back to work.
No, she wasn't going to seek him out like some impulsive teenager. Come on, how lame would that be?! It was bad enough that she had basically been his stalker for 3 years as he tried to get home. Exhausted, Mindy packed up her laptop and headed home.
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I am a lazy person now, courtesy of my forced inactivity. Driving around for weeks straight will do that to you. As I laid on my couch mindlessly watching TV, I thought about what Lewis had said.
And I came to this conclusion: No one was in jail because NASA had covered up the mutiny, which had most likely been sent by Mitch Henderson, who still had his job, because NASA had pretended that the message has never been sent against the rules. So no one could get in trouble or get court marshaled, because 'What Mutiny?'
Man, if that ever got out, a whole bunch of people would be in deep shit, including the big bosses because they kept a military matter secret from the military. I have effectively caused a nation-wide mystery, that will hopefully never be solved. Plus a small matter of another 6 billion dollars of national debt, which I hoped WOULD be fixed. It would suck if they made ME pay for it, but totally fair. One issue: I don't have 6 billion dollars in my pocket.
Anyway, I was watching some stupid kids' show where George Washington was beating up Santa the Kidnapper. Why do we show this stuff to our youth?! If I were president, I would make kids' shows be about... SURVIVING! Give our kids something to help them later! Not the singing animal crap that everyone seams to think that kids need.
It was about 1:30 AM when the stupid show finally ended. Why was I still awake? Because... INSOMNIA! Yay! Note the sarcasm! I remembered enough from that one sleeping pill I took when I thought the Hab would breach after I cut part of it out to know that me + pills = bad.
I really needed some magic spell to cure my inability to sleep on command. Seriously, that would be an epic superpower.
Something new cane on the TV, but I stopped paying attention. I was thinking about that woman, Mindy. What was her deal? She seemed nice enough, and was really friendly to me. But she appeared to be really, well, scared. Was I that intimidating?
Maybe I still looked a bit too thin, or fragile somehow. Maybe she was just deathly terrified of astronauts. (If so, then why was she at NASA?!) One thing I miss about being stuck in quarantine: less scary people. Less people in general, actually.
A lot of people followed me around now. My crew, a boatload of doctors, a nice collection of reporters, and some random people. And a few kids who wanted an autograph. It's flattering, but a bit overwhelming.
Anyway, I tried another way to sleep: Trying to remember every thought I had trying to sleep the past day. I just end up thinking around in circles until I got bored enough to sleep.
Yup. My life sucks now. G'night (hopefully).