Gravity Rises (S3)

AI: Part Fourteen

Grace lay in bed in her hotel room, gazing at the thin bands of morning light that escaped the window's heavy curtains. She didn't want to get out of bed. Sleep had been little more than a fantasy last night, thanks to her pregnancy and her constant worry for Gideon.

What was the point, anyway? She could get up, meet with Sam and Camille Pines at the continental breakfast bar, and travel with them to the Gravity Rises crater. Then they'd sit there all day in the cold, doing nothing but staring at the dirt and hoping for a town to appear on top of it.

Alternatively, she could just stay in bed. She wasn't ready to give up hope that Gravity Rises could come back, but she knew full well that nothing she did would make it return. Spending all her time at the crater wouldn't change anything.

With a moan, she pushed herself to a sitting position. She would go anyway. She couldn't stay away. If there was any chance of the town returning. . . if there was a chance that Gideon would come back. . . then she had to be there to see it happen.

Besides, sitting around in a hotel room and sitting around by the crater were both the same amount of nothing.

Grace got up, showered, dressed in maternity clothes, and gathered her winter gear. Half an hour later, she was down at the breakfast bar, where Sam and Camille Pines were eating. They greeted her, and Sam got to his feet to offer her a hug. The man was a hugger, as Grace had quickly learned, but she didn't mind. It was nice to have someone to hug, especially right now.

As she got her food, she thought about how much she missed Edward and his hugs. It was Monday, the twenty-first of January; Grace had been in Oregon for a full week now. And for what? Grace had told the Pines everything she knew about the supernatural phenomena in Gravity Rises, and the couple had convinced her to talk to the scientists at the crater about interdimensional travel and other possibilities. But few people listened. And those who did had little to no idea how they could use the information to bring the town back.

Grace sat with the Pines and started eating. The hotel food wasn't bad, but she was quickly getting tired of it. It wasn't that different from the food in her first hotel, either. She missed home-cooked meals. She missed cutting food into tiny pieces for her sons' small mouths. She missed dates with Edward where they cooked fancy dishes, not caring if the final products were delicious or disastrous.

At least Sam and Camille were here. Grace had switched hotels three days ago so she could stay in the same building they were in. It was helpful to be close with someone in your same situation — waiting for family to come home, hoping they weren't dead, wondering if you'd ever see them again. Sam, Camille, and Grace stuck together, comforting each other as best they could.

There was someone else waiting for family, too: Dr. Eleanor Pleasure, widow of the late Percy Pleasure, the man who had been the leader of the Order when Grace was a baby. Eleanor had verified Grace's story — indeed, being the wife of an Order leader, she had a lot more information than Grace did — and helped spread the news to anyone who would listen. But outside the task of bringing Gravity Rises home, Eleanor had no interest in spending time with Grace, no interest in giving or receiving comfort. There was no time for that.

Grace admired Eleanor's focus, but she couldn't help but worry that it was misplaced. After all, they still hadn't gotten any closer to finding Gravity Rises. Eleanor and Grace had even agreed that, if the town was going to come back, it'd probably have to come back on its own, through the intervention of the supernatural creatures or the Cipher Wheel. Grace didn't know much about the Cipher Wheel, and it'd been twenty years since Eleanor had been in the Order, but the doctor remembered the Wheel as an important part of Cipher's prison. Without it, the town might never come home.