Chapter Text
Ed and Stede dodge Oluwande for a few days, until they can pin down Izzy. Literally. Ed gets his hand on the collar of Izzy's shirt, and practically drags him to Oluwande's office. "We've got something to say to both of you." Ed practically growls it.
Oluwande had been writing something up, but he turns away from the computer at the unexpected interruption.
"Ed, Stede. I've been expecting you." he says, calmly. "I see you brought Izzy."
"Izzy's taken credit for what we have a problem with." Stede answers, matching calm for calm.
"We understand that we were experiments." Ed starts out, "But that didn't give you permission to screw with the parameters!"
Oluwande takes a breath, but Izzy holds up a hand. "Whatever suggestions were made, I approved them."
"But the suggestions were made." Stede says, mildly.
"But not by Oluwande." Izzy says.
"I didn't know about it until after the fact." Oluwande says. "Not really my style, is it. Give you problems to solve, yeah. Cause you problems, no."
"And I'm not telling you who." Izzy says.
Ed grimaces. "Fair. It was a piss-poor attempt, anyway."
"Oh, absolutely." Oluwande agrees. "For one, the two of you don't work like that. For two, well, you both care enough about the science you were doing to feel actively betrayed."
Stede nods along. "Exactly."
Ed adds, "And really, messing with Stede's bedtime routine when he's up there could have been dangerous."
Izzy grimaces. "Are you all ganging up on me?"
Stede points out, "You could tell us who really deserves our ire, instead."
Izzy purses his lips and shakes his head. "It was my call."
"Then I guess we're ganging up on you." Ed says.
"I guess I deserve it." Izzy sighs.
"You do." Stede says, primly.
Izzy sighs again. "Will you accept an apology?"
Stede instantly smiles, "Of course."
"That's all we wanted, mate." Ed adds.
Izzy nods, and, looking as though it is physically painful, he says, "I am sorry for allowing your experiments and rations to be messed with in hopes of getting a reaction from the two of you. It won't happen again."
Stede and Ed look at each other, then back at Izzy. "You're forgiven." Stede says.
"But Izzy," Ed says, voice softly menacing, "don't let it happen again."
Reconnecting with the children goes better. "Dad! Ed!" It's hard to tell which kid said what, or if they were both screaming, but soon each man had an armful of children, with Doug and Mary following more staidly behind them.
"They missed you." Mary says.
Stede nods as he listens to Alma in one ear and Louis in the other telling him all the things he's missed while he was gone. "And I missed them!"
"Mom's due in this weekend." Ed says, starting another round of happy kid shrieks.
Doug laughs. "Roach said he wants to talk to the four of us once the two of you are back on duty."
"Already?" Stede asks, mildly surprised.
Mary shrugs, "You did better than even Oluwande expected, apparently."
Stede catches her eyes, and she nods. "It'll be good for them." she adds.
"Alright, then." Ed says, "Guess we'll have to have a pizza and wine night sometime real soon. Go over some of the things NASA might not pass on."
Doug nods. "After your well earned vacation."
"Definitely after that." Stede grins. "We have a lot of catching up to do before the next round of training."
Later that evening, before the sun is down, but not by much, Stede and Ed return home.
"Hmmm. Gravity." Ed teases.
"Oh?" Stede grins. "Something you want to do with that, is there?"
"You." Ed answers, poking Stede's side and making him laugh.
"I rather thought it was the other way around you were wanting." Stede says, through the remaining giggles, once he catches his breath.
Ed throws his head back, "I did mention riding you . . . And the package Roach sent was our favorite of the lubes we tried up there . . ."
Stede looks intrigued, "Really, Ed?"
"Mmmhmm." Ed looks smug, then leans down to whisper in Stede's ear, "If you want to shower off the Coke that Louis spilled on you, I can get myself ready . . ."
Stede turns his head to catch Ed's mouth with his own. "That, love, sounds like the best idea you've had all day."
Two months later, in a meeting room at NASA, Izzy calls for silence. "Project Hestia is a go."
The room erupts in chaos. Izzy waits it out. "If this leaks, you will be fired. You will be lucky to get a job at McDonald's when I'm done with you. If the names of anyone involved in this project get leaked, I'll tell Bonnet and Teach who leaked those names. You'll be lucky if there's enough of you left to bury when they're done with you. This project will be much tighter than Demeter or Anteros. No press. If anyone notices it in the Congressional record or the budget paperwork, send them to Fang. Fang, you will craft a boilerplate response to those queries no later than end of day."
He waits. Nobody says anything. "Any questions?"