I own nothing, Andy Weir is the bomb, don't sue me.

So, my first story of The Martian! Yay, I'm back to writing, and I like my idea. Please don't judge too harshly for mistakes. Or the pairing. ITS TECHNICALLY CANON. Sort of. Anyways feel free to criticize, and enjoy the story. We need to expand this fandom to around... Mars.

It started as such a simple day. I left my modestly sized apartment, at some godforsaken time around two in the morning. I got into my car, drove to the NASA building, or National Aeronautics and Space Administration. What a long name, I mused tiredly.

I navigated the veritable labyrinth of hallways with relative ease. Sort of. Left, right, left, straight- wait, no, go left, now straight, and right. I trudged into SatCon, sat down and sipped my coffee, bathing in the silence of the empty room. I tiredly scanned the room, waiting for the computer in front of me to load up my email. It was normal. A simple, standard procedure. In hindsight, it was comforting.

"A Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering, and I'm working in an all-night photo booth." I grumbled to myself. Life isn't very nice. I felt an odd urge to flip off the planet. The Intranet browser launched, and I pulled up the SatCon email.

"Venkat Kapoor?" I mumbled into my half empty coffee cup. Why was the Director of Mars Missions emailing me? Well, not me, he sent it to the SatCon email. But since I'm the only one here, it's the same thing. I shrugged.

It's too early for responsibility, some small part of my brain chimed in. I ruthlessly pressed it down and clicked open the message. All part of the job. My eyes widened, or at least as much as they could while trying to remain shut.

"31.2°N, 28.5°W... Acidalia Planitia... Ares 3?" I quietly hummed, my cursor hovering over the attachments. I thought we weren't supposed to photograph the site, in case we found Mark Watney's body. Curiosity won out, pressing my finger down, I watched as the first of 17 images filled my screen. It was, in fact, the Ares 3 site. Not a real shocker there. The message did say to check for surviving elements.

I felt a touch of guilt as I scanned the image for Mark Watney's dead body. Just a touch, though, considering I found nothing but a broken radio dish and red sand. Next image.

"Hab intact." I droned boredly. I brought the coffee to my lips. It's a good thing I didn't drink, I would've choked. I grabbed my cell phone.

"Hey, this is Mindy Park at SatCon. I need the mission logs for Ares 3, where can I get 'em?" Several half-hearted 'mhm's later, I hung up, quickly pulling up the intranet. My eyes raced across the screen, ignoring the strands of hair falling in my face. Then I leaned back in my seat, my heart beating loudly in my ears.

"Uhhh..." I mumbled, eyes latched on to the screen as I picked my phone back up and quickly dialed a number in. I waited silently for the phone to pick up.

"Um, yes, I need the emergency contact number for Venkat Kapoor. Okay, thank you."

Venkat Kapoor was a dark-skinned, charismatic man, the Mars Mission Director.

And also, very, very intimidating I fidgeted in my seat. It was now 3:45 AM. I'm going to assume from the scowl that he didn't get a lot of sleep. He was in a T-shirt and shorts, for Pete's sake. He shouldn't be this scary. Though, I suppose he's what, seven levels higher than I am? So this is my boss.

"You Mindy Park?" He asked. I jumped slightly. I tried my best not to quiver.

"Um, yes, uh, sir." I winced, forcing the tension in my shoulders to ease.

"I'm going to assume you have a great reason for me being here?" His eyebrow raised expectantly. I forced myself to look up.

"Um. It's the pictures you sent, you see..." I trailed off, my sneakers looking very interesting. I couldn't just blurt out that I thought Mark Watney was still alive. Especially not in front of a director. They'd think I was insane.

"I think you should just look at the pictures." I didn't stutter. Good job, me.

He grunted, pulling up a chair behind me. I brought the images up on screen. Looking back at them only confirmed my theory. My eyes stung.

"The Hab is in good shape, that's good. Rovers are okay and so are the solar farms. I sure hope this isn't the emergency." He said. I could feel the skepticism. I pointed at two white circles on the screen.

"Uh, those are." My finger was shaking. Despite my best efforts, my fear was shining through. "The emergency, I mean."

"Huh." Venkat peered at the screen. "Looks like the Hab didn't do as well as I thought." He said, looking at the white canvas..

"Those look like Rover pop-tents." I interjected.

"Probably right." He agreed.

"How'd they get set up?" I asked, rhetorically. I already knew. Venkat shrugged.

"Commander Lewis probably set them up in case the MAV abort failed." He offered.

Tears began to blur my sight.

"I checked the mission files from Sols one through six."

"So?"

"I read through it, several times. They never deployed the pop-tents." Voice cracking, I was fixed on the screen, a focal point to keep me together. My throat hurt from fighting back sobs. Kapoor looked decidedly uncomfortable, and he didn't even know I was nearly crying.

"They obviously did, they must not have logged it." He was grasping at straws now.

"They activated two emergency pop-tents and never told anyone?" It was hard to be sarcastic while trying not to cry.

"Hmm, that doesn't make sense. Maybe the storm messed with the Rovers and they auto-deployed?"

"So, after they auto-deployed, they detached themselves and lined up next to each other twenty meters away?"

Venkat frowned. "Something had to have happened to activate them." He insisted.

"Why are the solar panels clean?" My throat burned. "There was a huge sandstorm. Why aren't they covered in dust?"

"The wind?" He offered, unsure. Tears threatened to slip down my face.

"Did I mention I never found the body of Mark Watney?"

Venkat's eyes widened as he stared at the picture. "Oh god." He finally realized what happened. We left him on Mars.

The dam broke. My nails dug into my palms. Tears spread down my cheeks, and breathless sobs slipped through my clenched teeth.

Mark Watney was alive.

A short first chapter, for... uh, development. Yes. Stay tuned, I'll probably pump these out pretty frequently if people like it! Review, follow(there's more to come.) and it's not just canon, just you wait. More development to come.