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Ohhhh boy, Mark fucked up. He fucked up big time.
He smiled, shaking Venkat’s hand, nodding along. If he pretended he didn’t see his crew behind him, he was safe, right?
Sanders was in the midst of some speech, explaining the mission details to Mark.
See, that was the issue, wasn’t it?
To understand how much Mark had fucked up, you have to know what happened a weeks before.
Since returning to Earth, NASA had wanted to keep close observation of Watney. Therefor, they stuck him in a teaching role for their new astronaut program. He was close by, but not in danger.
The rest of the crew, on the other hand, had been banned from any sort of spaceflight, after the mutiny during Ares III. No matter how hard he tried to defend them, the government wouldn’t listen.
Mark was sitting at his desk, preparing to leave for lunch, when he felt his phone buzz. He lifted it, seeing a call from Teddy Sanders. Crap.
You only got a call from the president of NASA if A. You had majorly messed up, or B. If they wanted something from you.
“Hey, Watney! Can you come to Johnson SFC really quick? We need to have a conversation.”
Well, he was screwed.
———
The meeting with Teddy went well. Or, better than expected.
It was plain and simple. Teddy wanted him to fly on Ares VI as the payload specialist/lead engineer.
“You’ve really proven to be a brave and determined young man.” Sanders chuckled. “And you certainly have a way of uniting the planet. Plus, they’re going to swing by the Ares 3 HAB and pick up the samples you left. It feels right to let you do the honors.”
In that moment, Mark didn’t think things through as carefully as he should have.
Instead of carefully contemplating this difficult decision like any sane person, (though Mark had decided he hadn’t been sane for a very long time) he instead grinned, and said “when does training start?”
———
For the last 4 months, he had done absolutely nothing except train. The Ares VI crew had yet to be announced, so he was the only one training. Which, honestly, was alright with him.
For those 4 months, Mark spent a good majority of his time on base and going through various rounds of medical examinations. Which, of course, meant he had hardly seen his previous crew.
‘Great going Watney, now they’ll all think you’re ignoring them…’ he thought to himself.
When his 4 months of training was finally over, he received his phone back, which he opened to find 700+ unread messages. Well, shit.
His whole crew had messaged him, asking how he was doing, if he was alright, where he was, and eventually asking if he was still healthy and alive.
He cringed, noticing the 280 missed phone calls.
And so, Mark, in all his infinite wisdom, texted the Ares III group chat.
“Hi! I’m alive! :D”
And promptly set his phone down.
When he returned home that day, he was met with a surprise: his whole crew standing in his living room.
“Uh, to what do I owe this lovely surprise..?” Mark asked nervously. He knew his appearance wasn’t really reassuring, between his messy hair and the bags under his eyes, he looked half dead already.
Ooh, Lewis looked pissed. Well, they all did. But Lewis especially.
Johansson’s eyes were murderous. “Four months, Watney. You disappeared for four fucking months!”
Martinez was next. “Mind telling us where you were?”
Mark sighed, rubbing his tired eyes. NASA had already prepared a story for him, expecting his crew would be curious.
“The science junkies back at NASA wanted to do some more studies. Making sure I didn’t have cancer and such. Good news! No cancer.”
Well, it wasn’t a total lie. They were checking him for cancer, which he in fact did not have!
And, even if it was a lie, it didn’t matter. Seeing the way their expressions softened entirely made up for it.
“As long as you’re ok” Beck smiled, and Mark’s heart melted.
Vogel chuckled. “While we’re here, we might as well do something.” The rest of the crew enthusiastically nodded, which was how they ended up watching Apollo 13 in Mark’s living room.
———
And that brings us back to the present.
The crew list for Ares VI was announced today. Apparently his crew mates hadn’t been all too happy about it.
As Mark zoned back into Teddy’s speech, he noticed Beck and Martinez, shuffling through the crowd of NASA executives in an attempt to reach Mark. Dammit.
“-ell Watney, I’m sure you’re anxious to meet your new team. Congratulations again!” The man smiled warmly, shaking Mark’s hand. He smiled, before following Venkat, Montrose, and Henderson (who had been approved to stay once Mark returned safely to Earth).
Behind him, he heard Lewis’s voice. “-xcuse us, we’d like to talk to Watney please.”
Shit
Her voice sounded calm, but Mark knew she was pissed.
The NASA employee, bless him, was trying to explain to her how she couldn’t just demand to speak to him, and how the astronauts were undergoing extensive training.
Mitch stopped, sharing a look with the other two executives, before turning to Mark.
“Go talk to Melissa, before she punches our poor intern.” He chuckled, before patting Mark on the shoulder.
“Hurry though! Intros and team building exercises start at 1520!”
———
As slowly as possible, Mark made his way towards his old crew.
“Crew” barely described their relationship. “Family” was more fitting.
He leaned against the door frame, watching as Vogel, Lewis, Martinez and Johanssen argued with the cluster of NASA interns.
He took a deep breath, before taking a step forward. “Let’s stop harassing the poor science junkies, yeah?”
The whole crew rounded to face him, and the poor interns scurried off to hide in their offices.
With fire in her eyes, Lewis marched to the front of the group, and grabbed the collar of his shirt. “Markus Benjamin Watney.”
Mark chuckled at the use of his legal name, before ducking out of the way of Lewis’s hand as she attempted to slap him upside the head.
“Look, if this is about the haircut I got last week, I totally agree. It sucks, I look 20 years older. I’m only 26, I swear!” He laughed, watching his crew’s faces turn from anger to frustration.
Lewis sighed, releasing his shirt. “After all that happened last time. After everything! Why the fuck do you want to go back to space?” Johanssen all but yelled.
Martinez nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. “We just saved your sorry ass from being deserted on mars two years ago. The hell are you going back for? Just to spite us?”
Mark cringed. “Ok, yeah, I deserved that” he murmured.
Vogel and Beck weren’t as furious, just worried. “We don’t want you to hurt yourself even more than you already have, just for the sake of science. Plus, this cannot be good for your mental health.” Beck chewed his lip nervously.
“I hesitate to imagine what it would be like for everyone here if you get left there again.” Vogel murmured. The crew nods in agreement.
Lewis put her hands on Mark’s shoulders. “Mark, I know you feel like you have something to prove, or that this will fix everything, but it won’t, you don’t need to-”
“That’s not why I’m doing it” he cut her off, putting his hand on her wrist in an attempt to comfort her.
“I need to repay NASA for everything they did for me, and they are well aware of this. Plus, someone needs to keep this crew safe, right?” He smiled slightly, meeting his crew mates eyes.
“I am, and will always be eternally grateful that you came back, risked your entire career, and saved me from that hellhole. Without you, I wouldn’t be here. But-”
He paused, closing his eyes. “But I have a job to do. I’m still an astronaut, after all. I owe it to this crew to do the best I can.”
The faces around him had drained of any anger, and were now filled with a mix of understanding and worry.
“Besides,” he joked, “we can still talk. I won’t be stranded this time.”
At that, Johanssen let out a wet laugh, and Mark could swear he saw tears drip down Martinez’s face.
Mark chuckled. “C’mon nerds. Bring it in” he chuckled, wrapping his team in a hug. Martinez ruffled Mark’s sandy blond hair, while Johanssen grabbed her phone from her pocket.
“Selfie. Now.” She commanded. The team posed, and the photo was shared on the group chat.
“Watney! Get your ass in he-” came Henderson’s voice, before he peaked around the corner.
“Oh. Hey guys. What’s new?”