Chapter Text
After about two minutes of reunion excitement, Watney collapsed. Which terrified everyone who was standing around, their smiles slowly slipping to concern while Beck strengthened his hold on Mark’s suit to keep him upright.
“This is normal.” Beck said, doing as much to convince himself as the crew. “It’s okay, he’s in a lot of pain, he’s malnourished and he just went faster than any man should through space. He’ll be fine.”
Still, he was glad they were able to get a reading of Mark’s bio-monitor data while he was inside the suit so he could know without a doubt that his heart was still beating normally.
***
Once Beck floated the two of them into his room, the only “sick bay” the ship had, he set to work on getting out of his own suit, and then slowly getting Mark out of his as well. It was shocking to see the transformation that had taken place over Mark’s body. He was aware from a medical standpoint that there would be weight loss with the reduced diet he was on, and sores from malnutrition, even the bruises were understandable given the fact he probably broke multiple ribs and did God knows what else to his internal organs in his departure from Mars, but none of that logic meant that Chris was prepared for what he saw when he got Mark’s clothes off.
His friend was in worse shape than he thought, so thin and so black and blue, it almost looked they they were too late to save him, with him lying there so still. Mark woke up halfway through Beck’s inspection and realized immediately that there was something off about his expression.
“What? Is it more than a broken rib?” He asked, just a touch of fear audible in his voice.
“No, no, it’s just…the smell.” Beck answered back, covering up the despair with a smirk. “You ever heard of a shower, Watney?”
“Damn, I knew I forgot something when I was renovating the rover. When I get back to NASA I’m going to have some serious remodeling ideas to discuss with them.” Mark smiled relieved by the news that he wasn’t more badly injured and probably by the thought that he would make it to back to Earth at all. His smile quickly turned back into a wince the more Chris prodded at him though.
“Sorry…feels like two broken ribs. I’ll have to tape them up and take some x-rays, but I’ll get you some pain meds first.”
Chris was gone for maybe a minute or two to get medicine for Mark but when he got back it was clear to see that the man was suffering a lot more than he was letting show. His body had started to shake and his eyebrows were furrowed like he was trying hard to keep any emotion from escaping.
“Just another minute, Watney. This will help you feel better and probably put you to sleep for a while too.”
Beck did his best to prop Mark up slowly to help him swallow down some pills and as much water as he thought Mark’s stomach could handle at the moment but the other man still tensed up in pain, his jaw clenching with the force of keeping his screams at bay. Once he got the medicine down, Chris would have been happy to just let him lie back and sleep until it was bearable again but Watney had other ideas.
“Will you still think of me as a hero if I ask you to help me shower right now?” Mark asked, while Chris started cleaning up.
“I never thought of you as a hero,” Chris shot back at him with a smile. “So that shouldn’t be a problem. But you really don’t have to do that, the smell isn’t that bad, we can wait until you’re not in as much pain.”
Mark frowned, “As wonderful as that moment sounds, that probably won’t happen for a while and I’d rather not be covered in…Mars anymore.”
By the end of his sentence it sounded like Mark had half a mind to start pleading next, something that Chris put the blame on the pain killers for. Still, he agreed to Mark’s foolish idea and started to help him up and off of the bed.
“Hey, Beck, just promise you won’t fall in love with me once you see me naked.” Watney joked, his normal smug attitude back in his voice.
“I will do my very best to resist.” Chris deadpanned back.
***
Once Watney was showered, hair cleaned, teeth brushed, freshly clothed, and finished with x-rays/testing, he was about ready to collapse again and was much more eager to get into bed than he was before. The whole bathing experience was less agonizing than either of them thought. Mark was almost back to his usual self, cracking jokes to compensate for the embarrassment he felt and to distract Chris from how awful he looked. It didn’t work one hundred percent on either count but it still comforted them both for things to almost feel normal again. Or at least as normal as it could get when you’re bathing your friend who you thought you might never see again.
Mark assumed that as soon as Chris got him comfortably into bed that he would leave to do whatever he was meant to be doing, helping examine the ship or fix what had been damaged, but to his surprise Chris just pulled up a chair and sat by his side.
“Don’t you have a job to be doing?” Mark asked, his eyes already drooping.
“I’m doing it, just go to sleep.”
“I’m not sure I can with you sitting there. You going to stay there all night?”
Beck could have been imagining it but he could have sworn Mark was almost comforted by the thought of him being there all night long.
“Well this is my room after all, I don’t have anywhere else to be.”
Apparently this answer was enough to calm whatever final worries Mark had because as soon as he got the reply he let himself drift off to sleep.
***
The first person to show up was Martinez about twenty minutes after Mark fell into a deep sleep. He peeked his head in first but couldn’t get a good look at Mark with Beck sitting in the way.
"Man, I thought maybe Watney wasn't in here anymore, what with the smell being gone." He joked, taking the last step down into the room.
Beck turned to give him a tired smile, even he was starting to feel drained by the day's activities. "He's asleep, probably will be for the next hour or so."
Martinez nodded as he came to stand by Beck's shoulder, his face resting in a more subdued expression than the joking one he wore moments ago. "He's pretty thin, huh?"
They may not have known everything about each other but Beck thought he knew enough about the crew by now to be able to spot the real question underneath Martinez query. "He'll make it. The meal plan NASA had him on was stretched pretty thin, but they knew what they were doing and they sent us more than enough to get him back to...to get him healthy again."
He was going to say 'to get him back to normal' again, but who really knew what normal would be after something like this.
Satisfied with Chris' answers, Martinez left a few minutes later, smiling again as he went, all too thrilled to have his best friend back on the ship.
***
Vogel was the next to arrive, he was much quieter in his arrival making Chris think that Martinez had gone out to share his experience with everyone. The chemist didn't stay for very long though, just stared down at Mark's sleeping form for a while, an expression of near wonderment on his face before patting Mark softly on the shoulder and climbing out again.
Just before he walked away Chris could swear he heard "Mein Gott, I can't believe it worked," fall from Vogel's lips. He wasn't sure what exactly Vogel was referring to but he had to agree that the fact that all of them were left standing after everything that happened today was amazing. Even if they left out the fact that they rescued the first person to be stranded on Mars alone. He tried not to let himself think too long about that though, or the reasons that lead Mark to being left in the first place.
***
Before Beth arrived for her visit, Mark woke up again. Chris could tell when Mark was slowly becoming more aware and did everything in his power to make sure that he didn’t wake up scared. Whispering words of encouragement to him and letting him know he was still on the Hermes and that everything was okay. It was clear when he woke up that he had no intention of staying awake for long so Chris was quick to get him to eat a bit of the mashed up protein bar mixed with water. It probably wasn’t the most appetizing meal, given the glare Watney wore nearly the entire time he ate it, but once Chris mixed in his next pain pill, he stopped complaining. This time when Watney fell asleep it was with the name “Dr. Bossy Beck” spilling from his lips.
The ‘bossy’ doctor himself was starting to doze when Beth put her hand on his shoulder. She spoke quietly, carefully preserving the sleepy atmosphere. “Why don’t you go get some dinner? I can stay here for a little while.”
“I’d rather stay, at least today, in case anything goes wrong.” He responded, gently for now but he was willing to put more fight into it if they really demanded that he leave. He just couldn’t do that again, not now that he finally had a chance to make up for what he’d done.
Beth smiled somewhat ruefully like she anticipated this answer. “I thought you might say that, so I brought you a snack.”
Beck jumped slightly when she tossed the packaged nuts his way, but was still able to catch it in enough time. He gave her a quiet thanks before tearing into the snack, letting it refill some of the energy he was lacking moments before.
“How’s the ship?” He asked, his mouth still slightly full, before another more pressing thought came to mind. “Oh God, what about everyone at NASA?”
“Well, the ship is fine. The inner VAL door is gone but the outer one seems to be holding—as for everyone back home…” Beth trailed off, still with a smile on her lips, although this time it seemed more proud. “Let’s just say it’s a good thing we still have plenty of travel time for things to cool off. When we get back all anyone is going to be interested in talking about is Watney anyway.”
They both turned to look at the sleeping man after that. Unlike his rest before, this time he seemed unsettled, even in sleep, his hands clenching and unclenching, his eyes moving around behind his eyelids and his body spasming occasionally. Beck felt terrible for whatever horrible scenario that was playing out in Mark’s mind right now and wished there was something better he could do to help.
“I’m going to get some sleep, Commander Lewis wanted me to let you know she’s awake if you need anything.” Beth said, giving Beck’s shoulder one last squeeze. “You should try to sleep too.”
Chris nodded but didn’t even turn to watch Beth leave, his focus now completely on Mark as he grew more and more restless in his sleep. As long as Mark was here and in pain, that was his only priority and right now he needed to figure out how to give his friend a better night’s rest.
***
In the end it was actually a simple solution. Whatever horror was happening in Mark’s head could be helped by simply reminding him he was no longer stuck down on Mars, alone, but rather still up here in space with all of them. It happened at first by accident, Mark’s hand spasming upwards towards some unseen danger, and Chris, wanting to stop him from hurting himself further grabbed onto it and held it closer to the bed.
The instant Chris grabbed Mark’s hand the reaction was obvious, his body relaxed and his expression cleared, Chris cursed himself for not realizing earlier that this would help. Now that the secret to a good night’s sleep had been discovered, Chris made sure to hold on tightly to Mark’s hand.
Chris himself dozed off now and again but whenever Mark would tense or murmur in his sleep, he was up in an instant, running his free hand up and down Mark’s arm or whispering a gentle, “I’m here, Mark, everything is alright.”
That’s how Commander Lewis found them when she finally made it to see Mark, almost a full 24 hours after they’d gotten him back on the Hermes. With the ship to check over and NASA wanting a full report of what happened, she hadn’t had time to get away sooner.
She didn’t have the same cheerful or wondering attitude the others had but rather entered the room and got down to business. “Dr. Beck take a break, get something to eat and clean up, I can watch over Watney while you're gone.”
Beck sat up straighter when she spoke but did nothing to pull his hand away from Mark’s. If the Commander did notice it, she didn’t say anything about it. “I’m fine. I’d really rather stay here until I know Watney is okay.”
“Chris, I’m not asking.” She said, using a softer tone but still making it clear she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “Clean up. That’s an order.”
Reluctantly, Beck did as she said, sighing as he pulled his hand away and stood up, his joints popping slightly after sitting in the same position for so long. He tried to avoid looking at Commander Lewis’ smug face when he stretched back.
“They are asking for a picture,” Lewis said right before Beck left the room. “One of all of us, for the press, and for their files.”
Turning to look back at Mark, looking so small in that bed, Beck tried to negotiate with her, “Maybe we wait a week for that. I’ll send them my reports from his check up, and the blood work results, that should help right?”
Neither of them had to respond to know that probably wouldn’t work, whenever NASA wanted something, they could be quite pushy until they got it. Beck thought for a moment longer before speaking again.
“He can’t even sit up right now, two broken ribs need time to heal before we jostle him to get the right camera angle, I say we wait.”
Commander Lewis smiled as Beck started to get himself more riled up over Watney’s wellbeing, but she nodded. “It’s your call Doctor. Now get out of here before I push you out.”
***
Chris hated to admit it but he really did feel better after getting a meal in his system and taking a shower. But he was anxious to get back to Watney when he realized he would probably be waking up soon and needed to eat a little more before having more medicine. Instead of trying to feed him a lot all at once, Beck was given scheduled meals for Watney to eat to work him back up to bigger portions and get his weight back to normal again, too much all at once would only make him sick and do much more harm than good.
After grabbing what he needed from the kitchen, Chris floated through to his own room, he’d be able to put together Watney’s meal in there. Maybe if he crushed up the pain pill in his food again he’d be able to get Watney to eat the full portion again. You’d think a guy who had nothing to eat but potatoes for the last year would complain less about the food he was getting now.
Halfway down the ladder, Chris heard Commander Lewis talking and stopped where he was. He planned on going back up the ladder and coming back later but couldn’t help himself when he heard Watney reply.
“The way I see it, we are even. You came back for me, I’m not holding any grudges.”
Even though Watney was quick to say he didn’t blame the crew, Beck knew he wouldn’t be so lucky if he brought up the subject with Mark. Commander Lewis may have given the go ahead to launch the MAV but she was acting on Beck’s assurance that their crew mate was dead. If Beck had given her more hope of Watney’s survival or hadn’t been so quick to declare him dead they may have searched for him longer or found a way to prop up the MAV instead of just leaving.
No, there was no way Watney would forgive him if he knew that Beck was the one who swayed Commander Lewis’ mind.
That’s why Beck couldn’t call Watney a hero, because if Watney was the hero, that made Beck the villain.