Work Text:
Grace trudged into the canteen looking twice as disheveled as he usually did. The bags under his eyes were almost comical, and his glasses sat askew under his chin. He wore a Paul Simon Graceland 1987 Tour hoodie (from his dad, he was a kid at that time), and was still in plaid pajama pants, socks, and slippers. His hair looked like it had been pressed against a pillow, and the lines etched in his face suggested the same.
Everyone looked to him as he entered and went straight for the coffee machine with his reserved "World's Best Teacher" mug in hand.
"'Morning, guys," he said, voice raspy. "What's for breakfast today?"
"Jeez, Ryland, you don't look so good." Shapiro took a sip from her own mug.
Grace yawned. "Eh, you know… saving the world… n' stuff. Tiring." He emptied out a little sachet of oatmeal into a bowl.
Lokken crossed her legs in her chair. "What happened to you?"
"Oh, just… Stratt." He puffed out air through his mouth and picked the sleep crusties from the corners of his eyes. "Always needs me for whatever it is she wants. Wears me down after a while."
Illy eyed Shapiro (mostly jokingly), who eyed Dubois.
"And she always insists it's me who does stuff with her. Like, you have all of these amazing, accomplished guys around and you pick me to- to do your bidding? Or whatever?" All the while Grace was talking, eyes half open, making himself some oatmeal and getting himself some bacon.
As he spoke, Yao nudged Hatch, who took a long sip of his own coffee. Shapiro mouthed, 'is he trying to tell us something?'
"And it's always something new, y'know?" Everyone listened in, exchanging glances. "Like, it started out pretty normal, well- as normal as it can be with someone like Stratt, but- one night, a couple nights ago, it was like… 1 a.m, and she just started running tests on me."
Even Dubois was hiding his face, looking between people.
"-I don't even know what she was trying to do to me, but I was laying there on the table in the lab like, what ever you're trying, I think I'd know if it was working."
At the second part of that sentence, Illyukhina reached out her hands to steady the others as they tried to keep from freaking out, her eyes wide. Dmitri wheezed something in Russian that Illy agreed with heavily. "he called me out of pocket," mumbled Dubois to Shapiro.
Grace sighed, and the rest straightened up. Just for a moment though. "But, whatever, she seemed satisfied by the end, so I left it at that."
"Merde…" Leclerc put his face in his hands. Meanwhile, Illy was shaking Lokken by the shoulder going, "I knew it I knew it I knew it!!"
They all immediately shut up as he turned around, leaned back against the counter, looking down at his bowl, cradling it in his hands innocently. Maybe not so innocently.
"…and last night, she kept me up till about 4 o'clock, and at a certain point I just thought to myself, like," he groaned, "jeezum crow, woman, just let me finish and go to sleep already!"
Grace shook his head and took another bite of his oatmeal. He got a notification on his phone. He set his bowl down, put his glasses on, read the message, and sighed. "Here we go again…"
And then he walked out of the room, leaving everyone to wonder what the hell that was, and how freaky, really, Dr. Ryland Grace was. That moment would go on to live in infamy around Stratt's Vat. Everyone there would know about it eventually. Illy was very disappointed to finally learn he was just an oblivious loser guy who got two hours of sleep for completely sex-unrelated reasons.