((last one???))

Recommended Song(s) For This Imagine:
Higher Love - State of Sound

Sol 64

The first order of business was to excavate what few plants you had attempted to grow. It wasn't successful, mainly because you weren't about to start a fire in space to make water, but now it was a burn-or-die situation.

You laughed to yourself as you found the wooden rocketship NASA let you bring up. It was engraved with 'just in case you need some water', a gift from your cousin, Mark Watney. He had joked with you before you went up about you getting stuck, since the same thing had happened to him when he went on the Ares III mission. Now you actually were, and you could just imagine the shit he'd give you if he could talk to you.

"I think I'm gonna ban my children from space travel." You declared, shaving off some of the wood.

"What?" Fischbach asked from where he sat near the computer panels.

"My family apparently has a bad track record of getting stuck in space." You held up the rocketship. "A gift from my cousin, Mark Watney."

Your crew mate laughed as you walked over to him. "And you're both botanists?"

"Obviously I'm better."

"How so?" He smirked up at you, grabbing your hand.

You smiled, fake-arrogant. "I'm the Commander."

Mark suddenly got very serious, letting you go and turning around to face the system. "Oh. Of course."

This put a frown on your face, and you stood in between him and the desk. "What was that about?"

"What?" He spun away from you.

You spun the chair back around, forcing him to look at you. "You suddenly wanted as little contact with me, which quite refutes your request from last night. What's that about?"

"I really like you. A lot. But you're my Commander, my boss, the leader! I'm not supposed to want to kiss you as much as I do!"

You cut him off by smashing your lips onto his, which he didn't protest to. His mouth moved against yours, and you ran your fingers through his hair as his hands grabbed your hips.

He disconnected your lips for a second. "This isn't-"

"Shut up and enjoy a nice moment, Fischbach." You kissed him once more.

"Very well, Commander." Mark went back into the kiss.

You could've sworn you heard the bing of an incoming video call, but you'd heard that many times before from your mind playing tricks on you. Nobody had ever called before, so you ignored the sound.

Suddenly, a voice reached your ears. "Hermes to Ares V HAB are you- holy shit! Guys, get over here!"

You jerked yourself away from Mark so quickly you nearly snapped your neck. Looking at the screen, you could see McLoughlin sitting at a desk on the Hermes, and the others across the room, running over.

"What?" Pinzon asked McLoughlin, peering at the screen. "Y/N and Mark!"

"They were fucking!" The Irishman yelled.

"No we were not, McLoughlin." You said sternly, glaring at the camera.

"They were fucking?" Muyskens asked, just coming into the screen.

"Really?" Barnes raised an eyebrow, walking in with him, and Kjellberg joined the conversation.

"Since when have you guys been fucking?"

"Since never!" Mark exclaimed.

Everyone interrupts into clamor about you and Mark, which had you rolling your eyes. "That is not the point of this video call!"

"Right," Kjellberg held up a notepad. "We're kinda already heading home, but we've done some calculations to be able to come back to Mars and pick you guys up."

"The only issue is that we have no way of extracting you from the surface." Barnes added.

Your eyes widened and you exchanged a look with Mark. "But we do."

You explained your sunflower oil powered Rover to get over to Ares VI's NAV, and the rest of the call was solely dedicated to timings and more calculations. The sunflowers will be done growing in about 98 sols, and it will take one Sol to harvest the oil, and then about 40 sols to drive over to Ares VI's NAV. The Hermes would be back to Mars in 65 sols, and would orbit over the Ares VI NAV takeoff spot in 140 sols, which is about how long it will take to grow, harvest, and drive to the other NAV.

You had a hopeful anticipation about you. You finally had an escape plan. "Thank you all so much for not giving up on us. Quick question though, why didn't you contact us before?"

"NASA told us your communications panel was broken, and we tried it on a whim today." McLoughlin informed you.

"Why would they do that?" Mark shook his head.

"NASA does a lot of dumb shit." You deadpanned. "But hey, we're talking now!"

"Speaking of talking," Barnes interrupted. "Are you guys fucking?"

"Hanging up now, see you in 140 Sols. Bye!" You said, waving at the camera, as did everyone else, then you hung up.

"Wade is awful at segues." Mark commented.

"You think?"

Sol 162

Your excitement and anticipation woke you up long before your alarm, and you crept into the makeshift greenhouse, where the containers of sunflower oil sat. Counting and recounting dozens of times, it was clear you had more than enough fuel to get to the NAV.

"Hey Y/N." A sleepy voice said from behind you, and you turned around to see Mark.

"Hey Mark!" You beamed, standing up. He opened his arms for you, and you gladly gave him a good morning hug. "Today's the day."

"Yep, today we start our 40 Sol journey running off sunflower juices to commandeer a space vessel."

"Space pirates!" You grinned, walking over to the spacesuit rack. "I'm gonna start loading up the Rover with the oil."

"I'll be out in a second, I'm gonna double-check our supplies."

You pulled on the suit and grabbed as many jugs as you could carry, filling up the makeshift gas tank on the Rover, then putting the rest in the storage area of the Rover with your provisions. Mark soon came out, holding just a few extra things, mainly medical, and got into the Rover.

"In order to get there as soon as possible, we need to be constantly driving." You said, hopping into the driver's seat, closing the hatch, then taking off your helmet. "I'll drive first, sleep if you can. When I refill we'll switch."

Sol 163

The Rover ran for nearly an entire Sol before needing refueling, so you were extremely tired by the time it came Mark's turn to drive. You were half asleep as you prepared to go out to refuel, but Mark placed a hand on your shoulder to stop you. "Y/N, sleep, I can refuel before I drive."

You smiled gratefully, sitting back on the bench-like seat, on the passenger's side. The quiet hum of the Rover shutting down lulled you to sleep, and you were just aware of someone lifting your head then setting it down on their lap. You fell asleep to the feeling of Mark softly stroking your hair.

Sol 202

You had gotten to the Ares VI NAV a day ahead schedule, allowing you to adequately do systems checks and perfectly line up with the orbiting Hermes overhead. The communications system on the NAV reestablished contact between you and your team above.

"Okay, so according to these calculations, if you will lift off in twenty-two minutes, intercept with the Hermes will be ideal." Barnes announced.

"Can you do that, Commander?" Kjellberg asked, and you turned to Mark for confirmation.

"Yes, we can." You began flipping switches, starting the checklist for powering up the NAV for takeoff, which took twenty minutes. You had no time to spare. "Just tell me when."

The twenty minutes seemed to inch by and yet move at supersonic speeds, the pressure and stress sped it up while your concentration and anticipation slowed it down. But you were the Commander, you had to keep a cool head.

Mark sat in the seat beside you, also running his own checklists for his panels, and just his mere presence helped ease your worries. Finally, you were ready to push the ignition switch. "Ares VI NAV is ready for takeoff, awaiting your countdown." You radioed to the Hermes.

"T-minus 30." Said McLoughlin.

"25."

"20."

"15."

"10." Your hand started shaking over the button, and then Mark grabbed your other one to comfort you.

"9."

"8."

"7."

"6."

"5."

"4."

"3."

"2."

"1."

You pushed that button with all the willpower you could muster and braced yourself against the climbing force. The NAV went further and further up, and the Hermes became closer and closer. The vessel bay doors were open, and Pinzon and McLoughlin were waiting in their spacewalk suits to receive you.

The first step you took off of the NAV and onto the Hermes nearly made you cry. Here you were with your team again. Even with the huge helmets and suits on, Marzia gave you a huge hug, as did McLoughlin.

Properly inside the Hermes, you and Mark removed your helmets to be overcome with a huge group hug from everyone to welcome you back. You were smushed in there beside Mark, and he wrapped his arms around you.

"We did it. We made it." He whispered in near disbelief, and you found yourself crying into his shirt.

"Damn right we did." You continued holing onto him even after the rest of the huggers disbanded from the group hug.

"Real talk, did you two fuck?" Barnes asked again, and you were ready to throw something at him.

"Real talk," you mimicked him. "We were stranded on Mars for nearly 200 sols, drove a Rover powered by sunflower oil, and basically became space pirates."

"It was so cool!" Mark exclaimed, and you laughed at how familiar yet different this was.

"Commander, did you keep up the tally while you two were there?" McLoughlin questioned.

"Unfortunately I forgot, seeing as I was expecting death. But I'm sure it's upwards of 500,000."

"Hey!" Mark tried to feign offense, but he still had a smile on his face. No amount of teasing could bring either of your moods down.

You were rescued.

((hello! i'm not dead! i'm just a piece of shit when keeping to an upload schedule, but i hope you enjoyed this FINAL part of the mark-tian series, and maybe i'll actually stick with my upload schedule?? probably not but im gonna try))