Chapter Text
Monday morning was painful for Grace. He’d spent Saturday at Rocky and Adrian’s house, going between throwing up in their downstairs toilet and curled up on their sofa watching the Simpsons. He’d managed to go home by Sunday, but didn’t end up doing a lot more than that. He managed to get a box of his exes stuff together, mostly so he didn’t have to look at it, and he made one meal (toast. The bread was stale so he ordered a takeaway instead).
This resulted in him showing up to school on Monday in a fashion not unlike a sitcom hangover. He couldn’t bring himself to cycle so begged Rocky to drive him. After a joking comment about Grace being “too young to get hangovers like this”, Rocky and Adrian arrived at Grace’s house at 7:30, finding him standing outside in a large jacket, sunglasses and coffee in a red travel mug.
It was a quiet drive to the middle school, until Grace decided to break the silence,
“I didn’t call her.”
“We know buddy,” Rocky responded,
“We’re more surprised you didn’t try and get that bartender’s number.”
The car went quiet again, as Grace sat in mortified silence.
He got through the first two periods alright, by limiting his ‘standing up and teaching’ time and handing out some super interesting worksheets. After lunch he was having a quick ‘head on desk’ nap when his sixth grade biology class started coming through the door,
“How was your weekend Mr. G?”
His head snapped up and he gave the small mob a thumbs up, “It was great! How was yours?”
Teacher voice came very naturally to Grace, and he was able to censor himself very easily, which did often prove embarrassing. He’d slipped ‘cheese and crackers!’ into more serious meetings and first dates than he’d care to admit. The 11 year olds in front of him fizzed with energy, all responding at the same time,
“I just slept all weekend!”
“I went to the cinema!”
“I saw my granny!”
Grace smiled and nodded at each response, giving appropriate reactions from behind his overcrowded desk.
“I didn’t do any homework!”
“I went to Ollie’s house!”
Once he’d settled the room down, he stood up to start some top quality teaching. Grace enjoyed teaching sixth grade because they were old enough to understand him and start developing opinions, but they weren’t ‘too cool’ yet, which started setting in the closer they got to high school.
The lesson that day was an introduction to cell structures, so Grace went through some slides and had them complete a pop quiz. Just before the bell went, a hand went up in the corner. It belonged to Evie, a quiet girl with long, curly brown hair and badges covering her jacket and bag. She often gave Grace a tour of these badges, going over the tv shows and films each one referenced in great detail.
“Yes Evie?” Grace asked, pointing his pen at her. Her bracelets clinked together as she put her hand down. “What time is parent’s evening tonight?”
30 curious faces turn to Grace, as his own falls. Parent’s evening. Tonight. For all his sixth grade classes. Frick.
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The bar was closed on a Monday, luckily for Simon after his busy weekend.
His Friday had already been a bit mental, Saturday was no better. He’d had TWO bachelorette parties make a stop, one after the other. Bar crawls were seemingly more popular recently, resulting in a lot of pink feathers, inappropriate comments and advances from every angle.
He then originally had Sunday evening off, but there had been a sickness going around so he had to cover, opening at 1pm and closing at 1am. Being the manager had a lot of perks, but being the last resort was not one of them.
He spent most of Monday doing odd jobs around the house; laundry, cleaning, cooking a couple of meals to freeze for later that week. Doing nothing and being alone was a luxury Simon revelled in after so many years of being under constant surveillance in Eden, and he made sure to make the most out of it. He watched a lot of good TV, ate a lot of good food and ensured the house was always clean and tidy.
Half way through an episode of Taskmaster (season 10 if you must know), Simon’s alarm went off. “Shit is it already 4?” he muttered, half asleep, pausing Greg Davies’ face and stretching upwards. He ran into his room, got on an old black button-up and jacket, pulled on some boots, and left the house.
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“So I DEFINITELY have to be present for this parent’s evening?” Grace said through his fingers, head in his hands,
“Unfortunately,” Rocky responded, not looking up from his laptop, “Just tell them that their kid is getting on really well, but could do with talking less and applying themselves more. Works 90% of the time.”
Grace rolled his eyes and groaned his way back to his classroom.
He’d mistimed it, however, and there were already a couple of students and their parents loitering next to the lockers. “Wow hi! You’re all here!” he clapped his hands together and tried to force the headache to leave his body, “Who’s up first?”
The first few went by quickly, Grace tried not to mentally acknowledge how spot-on Rocky had gotten his advice, he really was repeating the phrase “apply yourself” more than he’d like. The evening started winding down and he was about to start packing up when he heard a voice down the corridor, “Come ON, we’re already late! He might have already left and you HAVE to talk to Dr. Grace.”
Grace smiled, recognising Evie’s voice. His face turned instantly when he saw who was following behind her.
“Dr Grace! This my Uncle Simon,”
Grace’s mouth opened but nothing came out.
“Nice to meet you,” Simon said, putting his hand out for Grace to shake. There was no doubt in his mind that this was the bartender from Friday night, but either Simon didn’t remember him or, more likely, didn’t want to embarrass him in front of his niece. He decided not to mention it in any case.
Missing a beat, Grace took his hand and shook it, shutting his mouth into a slightly pained smile, “You too! Evie never mentioned she lived with her uncle?”
“Oh yeah! I love living with Uncle Si, after my mum died and we left E-” Evie started rambling, but she was silenced by a slightly stern, sideways glance from Simon.
“We moved here from Tennessee 4 years ago, it’s just the two of us now but we get on just fine.” His stern look softened and he put his hand on her knee.
They talked about how well Evie was getting on, and how if she could talk up more in class she’d do so well, because she was so bright but always saved her good points for talking to Grace individually, never in front of the class. They started wrapping up and once he’d congratulated Evie again on a great first semester, she spotted some friends and ran over to say bye before they left. Grace watched her go.
“How’s your head?”. Grace blinked at Simon, taken aback.
“Uhh it’s fine,”
“Good. I was worried after the other night.”
Ah. Of course. Grace huffed. “Ha yeah, I’m sorry about that, I don’t remember the last… bit of that night, it’s all a bit of a blur,” he lied. It was better that than admitting that he’d been replaying their conversation all weekend, going from that to his break-up conversation, to him throwing up on his shoes outside of the bar, like some sort of haunted mental echo chamber.
“It’s alright, I’ve seen worse.” Simon said with a shrug, he had a surprisingly relaxed resting face, calm beneath a flurry of scarred tissue around his eye and cheek.
“So how do you deal with working at a bar and raising Evie alone?” Grace said, with genuine curiosity before realising how unprofessional it was, “Sorry! That was so nosy, you don’t need to answer!”
“It’s fine, I don’t mind,” he responded, his brown eyes staring into Grace’s, “her father was never in the picture, and her mother, my sister, died 5 years ago,” his gaze drops, “so we left Tennessee. We were living in a quite toxic environment, and didn’t have a lot left for us there, so we moved here. And as far as juggling her with the bar, I am close with my neighbour down the road who looks after her until I get back, she puts her to bed when I work, or she stays with a friend on the weekend. I don’t like to work late shifts during the week if I can help it, so I’m usually done by 4 in time to pick her up.”
Grace opened his mouth to respond, but before he could Evie skipped back in, “C’mon Uncle Si are we going?”
“Yeah, we were just chatting while we waited for you.” Simon said, standing up to leave
“Well, it was nice to see you again,” Grace ,
“You too,” he replied. They shook hands again and Simon turned to walk away.
“Again? What do you mean again?”
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Grace sat in the silence of the classroom for a second, trying to recover from the situation. As if he could sense the silence, Rocky poked his head through the door, “Hey buddy, you need a lift home?”
Grace exhaled and leaned backwards. “Yep, thank you, let me just get my things together.”
“How did it go?” Rocky stepped into the room and leaned against the wall.
“Good actually, although,” he looked up from his bag, debating whether to mention it, “do you remember the bartender from the other night?”
“The hot one?” Rocky replied, his eyebrow raising over his thick black framed glasses.
“Uhh sure,” Grace chuckled, “he’s Evie’s uncle.”
“Oh!” his second eyebrow went up, “what did he say?”
“He just asked if I was okay, he was really nice about it to be fair.” Grace replied, not looking up.
“Mmmm.”
Adrian joined them later in the car. “How are we?” They asked, plonking into the passenger seat with a sigh.
“Grace saw the hot bartender today, Evie from sixth grade’s uncle.” Rocky said, matter of factly.
“Oh really?” They grinned at Grace, “And?”
Grace scoffed “And? He asked if I was okay and we talked about Evie.”
Rocky and Adrian shared a look.
Grace had never discussed his sexuality with the pair, or really thought about it himself. It hadn’t really been relevant for years while he was in a relationship. He wasn’t gay, he knew that, but he did find men attractive. Would he go so far as to… go out with one? Fuck one? Date one? He didn’t know. He didn’t need to know. He was still getting over his ex.
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“And then Rena said that if I want to go to her house next weekend then I can and we can have a sleep over and play Animal Crossing on her new switch!” Evie hadn’t stopped to draw breath since they got in the car, and Simon loved it. He loved listening to her talk about her day and tell him about her friends and explain things that he never got to experience growing up. Like Animal Crossing.
He was so glad that she got to have the childhood that he didn’t, although it was often bittersweet. He wished that he could have gone to a normal school and had normal friends and not fear for his life every day the minute he turned 16 and gained ‘his duties’. But, the happiest point of his life in Eden was when Evie was born and he knew that he couldn’t let her live the life he and his sister had.
He wished that his sister, Elsie, could have left with him- and the fact that it took them so long eats him up inside- but they needed the support. Eden was an oppressive, difficult place to live but the support that they provided Elsie when she gave birth at 16 was great and better than what Simon could have done at 20 with no experience of the outside world.
At 23 he tried his hardest to get the three of them to leave but Elsie became ill. Leaving in secret with an ill 19 year old and a very unhappy 3 year old was impossible, but Simon tried his best. He failed. He tried and failed twice before Elsie died and that was the tipping point. The neglect that the ‘doctors’ in Eden showed towards her gave Simon no other choice and he left before the funeral. Evie was 6.
She didn’t remember a lot of Eden, probably a mix of trauma responses and the age she was when they left. Leaving was the hardest thing Simon had ever done and adjusting to life away from it was nearly impossible, but once his sister had died he knew that he had to help Evie and make sure she didn’t have to live and die like her mother.
When they arrived in San Francisco, they had stayed with a friend of Simon’s who had left the year before until they found their feet, then moved to a 2 bedroom house in a better catchment area- one of many things Simon didn’t realise he needed to know about.
“And then at lunch time Ollie said that-”
“Spaghetti for dinner?” Simon interrupted, having tried to get a word in for a good ten minutes, and he was starting to get hungry.
“And ice cream after?” Evie was sat on the counter, swinging her feet and grinning at the man. He tried to protest but melted instantly, “We’ll see.”
He turned around to open the packet of spaghetti when Evie inhaled. He mentally prepared for another update as to what Ollie and Rena were getting up to when Evie blurted out “How do you know Dr Grace?”
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Grace loved living alone. After being in a relationship for so long and living with her for the last 3 years, Grace was enjoying the silence of his empty flat.
He pottered around the kitchen, boiling water, cutting vegetables and making a sauce. He liked taking the time to cook a proper meal for himself, especially when he wasn’t feeling great. That was another benefit of living alone, he could cook a massive meal and eat it throughout the week and no one else would touch it.
That was a bigger issue when he lived with Rocky, however. He lived with Rocky for years, from second year of university up until he got engaged to Adrian. The three of them had lived together for a while, but the idea of being married with a roommate wasn’t their idea of marital bliss.
The silence in Grace’s flat got boring and a bit scary, so he put on Brooklyn 99 in the background while he cooked.
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“Dr Grace was DRUNK?!”
“Yes, but you can’t talk to him about it, he’s very embarrassed.”
Evie had squeezed the secret out of Simon a lot easier than he’d care to admit, and they were curled up on the sofa eating ice cream having finished their spaghetti.
“I can’t believe you saw him AND Dr E AND Mx E?!” Evie was twirling the spoon and staring at Simon incredulously.
“Shhhhhhh,” he held his spoon up to his lips, “OUR secret.”
“Fiiine,” she whined, tucking herself under his arm.
They sat together on the sofa, watching Friends, until he heard her snoring gently on his lap. He stroked her hair, gently trying to wake her up.
When she was younger he would have scooped her up while she was sleeping and put her to bed, but now she was bigger, and he’d lost his arm, he had to wake her up.
“Hmmpphh” she groaned, batting his hand away.
“C’mon kiddo, you have school tomorrow,”
“Hmmmmppph” she turned over and lay on her back, staring at the ceiling and up at her uncle’s bearded chin. “Are you working tomorrow?”
“I am in the evening, I’m sorry, I’ll pick you up from school then Ava will make you dinner and put you to bed and I’ll be back around midnight.”
“Hmmmm okay.” She sat up and turned to him, yawning softly, “Gnight Simon.”
“Night kid, I love you.”