Train Hunters

Payoff

Grace's initial plan had simply been to let Simon take a short nap, to wake him up after a few hours and send him home. Unfortunately that plan was interrupted somewhat by the fact that she'd fallen asleep as well somewhere along the line. They'd gotten back from lunch around 12:30 and a quick check on her phone indicated that it was currently 6:00. Ignoring the fact that her sleep schedule would no doubt be messed up Grace was more concerned that she still needed to kick Simon out of her house.

"Dude, wake up." she said as she made her way over to the couch and shook him. Simon let out an annoyed groan in response before looking surprised at who was waking him up.

"Grace?" he asked. "Why are you at my house?" he said. Grace shook her head and gestured around.

"You are in fact at my house." she said. "I brought you here after lunch, do you remember?" Simon put his head in his hands and tried to focus on what was being said.

"Is my car here?" he asked. Grace nodded in response. "What time is it?" he questioned.

"Six." she responded. Simon thought about something for a moment before making a split second decision.

"You want to go on a quick trip? I promise I'll bring you back right after and I'll be out of your hair." he explained. Grace nodded and grabbed her purse.

"I'm always down for a quick adventure." Grace responded. Simon nodded and two headed out to the beat up truck that Simon drove. As she climbed into the passenger seat Grace asked a question. "So, where are we going." Simon quickly gave his response.

"If we really are going to expose the train for the internet there's something important that we'll need. I have that important thing but it just so happens to be at my dad's house right now so we'll just stop by, grab it, and get out before anyone notices." he explained. Grace took that information and began attempting to piece together Simon's paternal history with what she knew about him. His parents had been apart when he was ten with his dad having a girlfriend and living states away. According to his testimony in group his dad and mom had gotten back together while he was missing.

And according to what he'd just said about his dad living in a separate house, paired with the clear vitriol in his voice at the mention of his father told Grace that it hadn't lasted long. Grace chose not to ask Simon any questions about it as she sat in that passenger seat. Simon switched the radio output over to a CD which played some discordant noise that he proceeded to bob his head along to. Grace looked at him absolutely dumbfounded about how this at all could be catchy to him.

"Can we listen to like, anything else?" she asked. Simon cracked a smirk.

"Would you prefer Carly Rae Jepson's highly acclaimed 2015 pop classic Emotion?" he asked. Grace raised her eyebrow in suspicion of his knowledge of her music tastes. "It's up next on your Apple Music queue." he explained. Grace looked away in embarrassment.

"That is a good album." she muttered under her breath. Simon quickly gave his snarky response.

"My car, my music." he'd said as the discordant sounds of a group that Grace was told by the artist info called themselves "Death Grips" blasted throughout the truck. Despite his clear and seemingly determined stance against changing his music taste for Grace's comfort he did switch the radio to something else.

The words "I thought that I was dreaming when you said you loved me" drifted hazily from the radio and Grace felt herself relax as it was much calmer than Simon's other fare. Actually she was pretty sure she knew this artist. Grace dug into her pocket and checked the song against her playlist and found that her and Simon shared this artist in common. Simon pretended not to feel happy about that. Frank Ocean crooned on in the background as Grace decided to ask Simon about that favor she'd been thinking of before she'd fallen asleep.