So, as a thank you for the wonderful responses that I've received on this story, have a second chapter for this week! Jelsemium mentioned that it would be nice to see things from someone else's POV. So I did several. Have the other side of Mark's hiking mishap!
Annie Montrose tapped her finger impatiently on her desk. She needed Mark to sign some forms regarding the newest media release, but he was taking forever to pick up his phone. Seriously, it was on like the sixth ring by now-
"You've reached Mark Watney. Please leave a message so I can forget to call you back."
"Hmph." Annie hung up the phone. She was pretty sure he never listened to his messages anyway. Instead, she clicked down the hall to Commander Lewis' office, where she happened to know the woman was working overtime filling out paperwork. Lewis looked up as she rapped sharply on the doorframe.
"Morning, Melissa. Do you know where Mark is? I need these papers signed."
Lewis shrugged. "At home, as far as I know. He didn't say anything about having plans. Did you try calling him?"
"Voicemail," Annie informed her succinctly.
"Hm. He might have the volume turned off. You might as well take the papers over to his apartment. It'll be faster, anyway."
"Will do," Annie said, already striding away. Where in her job description did it say astronaut wrangler?
Annie walked up to Mark's door. The apartment complex was nice, but unassuming. It didn't surprise her that Watney liked it here; he tried not to draw too much attention to himself. Annie was used to people being camera shy, but this was different. He didn't mind smiling for a news camera, but he hated being recognized out in public.
She knocked sharply on the door and stepped back to wait. No result. She tried again.
"C'mon, Watney," she muttered, "I don't have all day."
Across the hall a door opened and an ancient old lady peered out from behind glasses as thick as Annie's little finger.
"He's not there," she quavered, "so would you mind not rapping so loudly? Ellen's on."
"Do you know when he left?" Annie asked, smiling at the old woman. Maybe he'd be back soon.
"Early this morning. I was taking Lulu out and we left at the same time. It must have been eight, because it was before the cooking show. They made pecan pie," she informed Annie solemnly.
Annie glanced at her watch. It was almost eleven now. That was a pretty long time to run an errand.
"You're not the usual blonde that visits," the old lady said, suspicious. "Are you sisters?"
Annie stared at her for a moment. "The other…? Oh, Mindy. No, we're co workers."
"I see." The woman disappeared back into her apartment without another word, but Annie wasn't paying attention. She was already calling Mindy's number.
"Mindy," she started, when the phone was answered. "Do you know where Mark is? I really need these damn papers signed."
"Um. His apartment?" She sounded like she'd just woken up.
"No, I'm there. If he's here he's not answering his door. And one of his neighbors said he left at eight this morning. I thought he might have told you where he was going." There was rustling on the other end of the line.
"Mark said he was just going to hang out this weekend. He didn't say anything about going somewhere. Hold on, I have a key. I'll be there in ten."
"Look, I'm sure he just had to go do something," Mindy said as she let them into Mark's apartment. It was quiet and clean, if a little spare, Annie noted. Apparently he'd finished unpacking. A jingle heralded the arrival of a small grey cat. Mindy knelt to pet it as it rubbed all over her.
"Hey, Tom. Where's your idiot human?" The cat only mrrowed, his eyes squinted shut in pleasure as Mindy scratched his chin.
Annie walked around the apartment, looking for a clue. There was nothing.
"His keys are gone," Mindy said, pointing to an empty hook beside the door.
"So? He did go out."
"No," Mindy shook her head, "he doesn't drive in the city. Hates the traffic. He uses public transportation or walk. Mark only drives when he leaves D.C."
"So where did he go?" Annie asked, exasperated.
"What do you mean, you lost Mark Watney?" Teddy Sanders asked carefully. He was having horrible deja vu.
"I didn't lose him," Annie told him over the phone, "I just can't find him, and no one seems to know where he is." Teddy sighed.
"We need to discuss this further. Come to the small conference room as soon as you can. And bring Miss Park, please." He disconnected the line and stood up. "Marilyn," he called as he passed through the waiting room that adjoined his office where his secretary sat, "cancel my meetings today. Something has come up."
Teddy walked down to Venkat Kapoor's office.
"Venkat," he started, but the man held up a finger and quickly went back to typing. Teddy walked around the desk to see an email from Annie telling him about Watney. He was replying, but all he'd written was "?!"
Venkat clicked send.
"We're discussing this in the small meeting room as soon as Annie gets here. Grab Lewis on your way down, please." With that, he swept out.
"Does anyone on the crew know where Watney is?" Teddy asked Lewis. She looked up from her phone, presumably texting her charges.
"No. They are, however, very concerned now." Lewis looked like the slight frown on her face was going to become permanent. Teddy wouldn't have been surprised if Watney had given her grey hairs. He certainly had a few with the wayward astronaut's name on them.
"As am I," Venkat muttered.
Mindy was furiously typing on a tablet that she'd brought with her.
"What are you doing?" Annie asked.
"Trying to locate him via satellite imagery. It's a lot harder when he's not the only person on the planet."
"Isn't that illegal?" Venkat questioned. Mindy took a whole three seconds to glare at him before resuming her search.
Teddy sighed. Again. He knew the week had been too uneventful.
"It's two o'clock," he said. 'What time did you say that the neighbor saw Watney leave?"
"Eight," Annie confirmed.
"So Watney has been MIA for...six hours, give or take. There's no point in notifying the police. They won't do anything about it until twenty-four hours have passed."
"What are we supposed to do, then?" Lewis asked. No one could give her an answer.
Teddy turned to Mindy. "Any luck?" At this point, he didn't care if it was illegal, unethical, or unadvisable.
"No," she huffed.
Looks like we're just going to have to wait, then," he said grimly.
Lewis was watching Martinez pace the floor. Johansson looked like she wanted to punch someone, and Beck was moping like someone had kicked his puppy. They were all tense. It was almost seven thirty. They hadn't heard anything from or about Mark in over eleven hours. It was not a good time.
Her phone ringing, set on the loudest possible volume, momentarily froze everyone in the room. Lewis snatched it off the table. Unknown caller. She hit answer.
"Hello?" She said. If it wasn't Mark or news about Mark, she was going to be pissed.
"Lewis? It's Mark." Lewis had an intense moment of relief. Then she got angry.
"Where the hell are you, Watney?" The crew was staring at her with rapt attention.
"Um." There was muffled talking in the background. Did he not know where he was? Mark told her the name of a hospital. That wasn't even in the area.
"Why are you in a hospital? Almost two hours away? What happened?" Lewis was having a hard time not screeching. Martinez was making "what the fuck" gestures with his hands. She ignored him, and snapped her fingers and mouthed "paper and pen" to Johansson, who got them for her.
"I was hiking, and I, uh, kind of fell. So it took awhile to get back to my car. I found a very nice park ranger though. Or he found me. He thinks I fractured my ankle, so he drove me to the hospital." He was rambling. But he sounded alright. For the most part. Hiking? Why was he hiking?
"Who's phone is this?" Lewis asked him.
"The ranger's."
Lewis took a deep breath, trying to get herself under control. "I have to go inform NASA that you are, in fact, alive. You are not to leave that hospital until I get there. Is that clear?" If he wasn't there when she got there, she would find him and run him over with her minivan.
"Yes ma'am." He sounded meek. Good. But just to be sure-
"Stay there, Watney. I mean it." She hung up the phone without waiting for a reply and power walked down to Teddy's office, where he, Annie, and Venkat were sitting.
"He called me," she informed them without preamble.
"Where the hell is he?" Annie asked.
"A hospital near Shenandoah National Park," Lewis told her. "Apparently he went hiking and twisted his ankle or something. I'm going to go get him."
Teddy waved her out. "Go."
She went, three of her crew trailing her like ducklings.
Beck held on for dear life as Lewis drove like a bat out of hell. He understood, really, but they were either going to die horribly or get pulled over. The spaceship had felt safer. He was very surprised when they arrived at the hospital in one piece.
Lewis parked and they all piled out of the minivan. The three of them lingered in the waiting room as their commander approached the receptionist and motioned for them to wait while she disappeared down a hallway. They awkwardly sat down to wait.
"She's gonna murder him," Martinez said after a moment.
"Understatement," snorted Johannson. She had her arms crossed. None of them were going to relax until they saw Mark, Beck realized.
It was only about fifteen minutes before Lewis walked, much slower, back into the waiting room, beside Mark who was hobbling along on crutches.
"Hey guys," said Mark.
"Mark, what the fuck man?" Martinez cursed. That seemed to be the general sentiment.
"Sorry," Watney said.
"What were you thinking?" Johansson demanded.
"I'm sorry," Mark repeated.
"He wasn't thinking." Lewis still looked pissed off.
"Guys," mark said, a little louder. The crew looked at him. "I'm sorry." There was a moment where no one said anything.
"You're a mess," Beck told him. It was mostly as a distraction, but also true. Watney was covered in mud and scratches and bruises. He also looked exhausted. So basically like he'd gone ten rounds with a wood chipper. A malicious one. He would need to get cleaned up and Beck wanted to check him over as well. Not that he didn't trust the ER doctor, but, well, that guy didn't know Watney's medical history.
"I'd say you're right about that," a new voice declared. It was an older man in a ranger's uniform.
"This is the park ranger that saved my bacon. Leonard Cordell, I'd like you to meet Melissa Lewis, Rick Martinez, Beth Johansson, and Chris Beck."
"Pleasure to meet you," Cordell said, nodding to them. He had a soft drawl that made him sound calm. Or maybe h just was calm and it contrasted with the rest of them. "I have to be going now, but I wanted to make sure Mark got off alright."
"Thank you," Mark said. "I really appreciate everything you've done." He looked like he really meant it. Beck thought that he must really like the ranger if he dropped the sarcasm with him.
"Yes," Lewis affirmed, "we do."
Cordell looked a little embarrassed at all of the attention. "Just doing my job. you all drive safe, now." He made his exit.
"Can we go home now?" Mark asked.
"Yeah, Mark," Martinez said, "Let's go home."
Lewis went to get the van, insisting that Mark didn't need to hobble all the way down to the parking lot. Martinez helped Mark climb into the middle seat of the van. The fact that he didn't protest the assistance spoke volumes. Beck exchanged a glance with Lewis and hopped in beside Mark. Martinez took the back seat, and Johansson got the navigator's position up front.
Lewis drove at a much more sedate pace on the way back. At first, Watney got an earful from the three of them about how much hot water he was in, but since he just agreed that it had been stupid, they ran out of steam pretty quickly. Ten minutes later Beck looked over to see Mark fast asleep, head leaning against the window.
"He must be super tired to fall asleep that easily," Martinez commented quietly. Beck hadn't been the only person to note the change.
"Yeah," Johansson answered, turning around in her seat, "I hear hiking several miles up a mountain on a broken ankle will do that to a guy."
"Hush," said Lewis, "let him sleep." The conversation subsided, although Beck caught Lewis checking on Watney in the rearview mirror several times.
"He's fine," he assured her quietly.
"I know." But Lewis guarded her crew carefully. Losing Watney the first time has devastated her. Now they had him back and she was determined not to lose him-or anyone else-again.
Martinez volunteered to stay with Watney overnight. Lewis hadn't asked him, but the crew were pretty much on the same page: don't let him out of your sight. He knew his wife would fuss a little, but she would understand when he told her it was Mark.
He guided a groggy Mark onto the elevator and into his apartment, where Major Tom greeted them enthusiastically, almost tripping Watney.
"Cut it out, Tom," Watney mumbled. "One fall is enough."
Martinez distracted the cat with fresh food and water while Watney hopped off to shower.
"Keep the cast dry!" Martinez reminded him. All he got in return was a wave of the hand. He was a little concerned that Watney would have trouble showering, but he listened carefully. No major crashing noises seemed to indicate that everything was alright.
Watney emerged dressed in sweats and a t-shirt. He was less muddy, but that just made the scratches and bruising show up better.
"I suppose I don't have the right to tell you to stop hovering," he sighed, limping over to the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water.
"Nope," Martinez told him, popping the 'P'. "Now, where are your extra blankets? I'm sleeping on your couch." Watney directed him.
"But don't blame me if Tom wakes you up at like six in the morning."
"Noted."
"I'm going to bed," Watney told him. 'I'll see you in a few hours."
"Good night," Martinez said, arranging his blankets on the couch. Major Tom watched, curious. Watney paused at the hall.
"Rick?"
"Yeah, Mark?" Martinez looked up from what he was doing.
"Thanks. I really am sorry about this." Martinez believed him.
"It's all good, man. We got your back."
"I know."
Once again, thank you so much for supporting me. It means more than you know-especially on days like today.