49 We Got A Moment Like Baby
Tommy by Tommy Genesis
He held off on asking the crew to come on break with him for about a week before Shields asked him about it again. He hadn't even applied for his own holiday days although NASA would probably drop everything to let him take a break if he wanted them to. That the thing about being stranded on another planet by NASA, once they get you back they do everything in their power to keep you from suing them.
It had also been a week since he'd spoken to Mindy about the kiss, or at all really. She hadn't texted him, he hadn't texted her and the longer he left it the more nervous he got about it. After a week of working and worrying and wondering what it all meant he finally spilt the beans to Dr Shields - it was her job to help him after all, she might have ideas.
"Don't text her. Clearly you two need to just talk this out."
"But-"
"Mark, she clearly likes you too. Ask her out on an actual date."
"If we go anywhere together you know the press will be all over us."
"Mark, you're famous, use that! There are restaurants for high profile guests that operate with discretion. Take a car there, get tinted windows and no one will even know you'd been there."
Mark thought about it, asking out Mindy Park. It seemed impossible to do and impossible that she would say yes but she had kissed him back on her sofa that day so maybe Siobhan was right, maybe Mindy did like him too.
"Okay. I'll ask her out. Oh wow, I'm going to ask out Mindy Park."
And with that plan in mind and his resolute at 100% he took off in the direction of Mindy's office down in SatCom. When he arrived it took him a second to remember she'd been promoted and had moved around a bit so he looked through all the glass offices until he spotted Rachel's signature red hair. If Rachel was around Mindy shouldn't be too far away but he couldn't seem to spot her anywhere. Eventually he just knocked on Rachel's office and asked her "Hey Rachel, do you know where Mindy is?"
"Um," she thought looking to where he office must have been "She's not in her office. Maybe ask her assistant Catherine?" She instructed pointing at an African American girl writing something on her laptop outside of the empty office that was presumably Mindy's.
"She has an assistant?"
"Being boss comes with some perks." She smiled gesturing at her own assistant, a brunette man with glasses and a pretty casual looking blue and white striped shirt and jeans with a formal navy blue jacket on.
"Huh, nice." He nodded approvingly "Anyways thanks for the help."
As if by clockwork by the time he'd gotten to Mindy's assistant, Catherine, asked her Mindy was and found out she'd gone for lunch a picture of him talking to Rachel had already been uploaded to twitter captioned:
A wild Watney appears in the wilderness of SatCom.
There were a few pictures underneath it, one was of him standing in the main area looking around, another was of him entering Rachel's office, another of them talking; she's pointing to her assistant and he's laughing, another of him leaving and then the last one of him talking to Mindy's assistant.
Thankfully none of the context was given so no one called him out on trying to find Mindy although some of the MarkPark shippers seemed worried that Mark was dating either The Red Head (Rachel) or Ms Carter (Christine). Mark was surprised at how fast the Ms Carter think popped up, apparently she looked a little like the woman who played Peggy Carter on some old Marvel show 'Agent Carter' and having looked it up Mark had to admit they were oddly similar.
Either way when he'd gotten to the cafeteria he'd caught up on all the new memes about him and calmed his nerves enough that he wouldn't chicken out. He was doing this. He was asking Mindy out.
As it turned out Mindy did have other friends besides Rachel and him in NASA and she was eating with them, of course she wouldn't just be eating alone in the cafeteria like he'd imagined, there was no way he could ask her out now. He considered hiding and getting the hell out but before he could do that Mindy spotted him, smiled and waved him over.
Mark panicked gave her the 'one moment' signal and got into the small queue for food. They all used biometric finger scanners for lunch but when he went to scan the food he'd gotten the cafeteria lady waved him off and gave it to him for free.
It pays to be a NASA celebrity.
Mindy's group scootched over and he sat down next to them as she introduced everyone "Mark this is everyone, everyone this is Mark."
"Hi Mark." They all said out of sync.
"Hi everyone." He said back and then looked at Mindy "But you do know I'm going to actually need some names right?"
She laughed "That's Cho Ganias she works in SatCom with me,"
a tiny East-Asian woman piped up "Hi."
"that's Ross Chambers, he's in printing,"
A slightly less attractive Matt Bomer waved at him "Sup"
"This is Helen List, she also works in SatCom."
She too waved at Mark and said hi.
"Cho, Ross, Helen. Got it." Mark repeated back pointing to each person as he committed their faces to his memory. One skill that he'd gained through working in a large corporation was the ability to network, sometimes getting ahead at NASA was as simple as knowing someone who knows someone. Since he'd gotten back form Mars his networking skills had plummeted, he wanted to be around less people, he had a harder time recognising faces after so long with none and he had forgotten how to interact with people. It had gotten better now but at the beginning Annie didn't even want him to do interviews.
They chatted amiably for the remainder of their meal and then Matt Bomer- sorry Ross Chambers left the table to get back to work. Cho blanched because she'd left earlier then the others and would have to run back across NASA to make it back to her station without registering her as late "I have to go!" She cried in a panic as she tried to gather up her stuff for the bin.
Mindy shooed her away "Cho, go. We'll deal with this stuff."
"Thank you so much Mindy, you're a life saver!" And she was off like a shot.
Now it was juts Helen, Mindy and Mark. Mark wanted Helen to leave so he could talk to Mindy but that would be rude and they were mid conversation. Maybe this was a sign that he shouldn't say anything. The universe wants him to keep his mouth shut. Maybe-
"Anyways Mark, we actually have to get back to work as well."
"Oh yeah right, you go."
"Oh by the way how comes you're in the cafeteria, you don't usually come down here?"
'I came to tell you I love you'. "I just missed breakfast this morning, overslept a bit."
"Like NASA wouldn't let you stroll in a couple minutes late." She laughed.
"Oh I don't doubt that they would, when I was doing my own thing I did so much shit and got away with it but now I'm with the team, and they're counting on me to do my part otherwise they can't do theirs so..."
She smiled "Always doing what's best for others. That's what makes you one of the good ones." and on that line her and Helen were off back to work at SatCom.
Mark sighed, his confessing his love really... really failed.
