Chaos Theory on Dimensionally Stable Objects on Earth College Campuses (11/27-ish)
Title - Chaos Theory on Dimensionally Stable Objects on Earth College Campuses (11/27-ish)
Author - earlgreytea68
Rating - General
Characters - Jack, OCs
Spoilers - None
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)
Summary - Brem goes to university.
Author's Notes - Many thanks to jlrpuck, who beta'd this even while being (I'm sure) a flawless hostess to arctacuda and bscotchpuma .
Many, many, many thanks to Kristin, for all the ideas. Thanks also to bouncy_castle79, who once again gave it the first outside-eyes read-through.
The gorgeous icon was created by swankkatfor me, commissioned by jlrpuckfor my birthday.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
Chapter Eleven
She was dating Brem Tyler.
They even did something as ordinary as dinner and a movie. They had a good-natured debate on the movie they ought to see, until she wheedled him into the period drama she wanted by nuzzling a bit at his cheek, which threw him off enough that he stammered his agreement. And he said some of those typically confusing things he said, something about the inaccuracies in the drama, and she asked if there was nothing he didn’t know everything about, and he seriously answered, “American football, really. I don’t understand the game at all.”
He was, as she had accused him of being, just impossibly cute. Ridiculously adorable. An alarmingly good kisser, once she told him to get it over with and kiss her already. Brem, she’d discerned, was a weird combination of absolute confidence and endearing uncertainty. She’d figured out that there were times when she just needed to take the lead. If she wanted Brem Tyler to kiss her, she could have waited for him to make his move-which she suspected would be after a few weeks of meals and bookstores and movies-or just make it for him. And that was, yes, impossibly cute.
She liked him. She genuinely liked him. He wasn’t like anyone she’d ever met before, and that was fascinating to her. She could listen to him ramble on about a topic forever and not grow bored. He was smart and he was funny and he was one of the best listeners she’d ever met. She was completely addicted to the way the freckles on his nose would scrunch up whenever he wrinkled his nose in concentration when she said something that he found particularly thought-provoking. She loved the habit he had of sometimes ruffling his hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up every which way. His hair was very thick and very soft, even though she suspected it was also full of gel, and she had developed an almost uncontrollable desire to have her hands in it as often as possible. He didn’t seem to mind that so much when they were in the middle of kissing, but he seemed to just tolerate it when they weren’t kissing, and that delighted her in a way. She didn’t think Brem Tyler let many people touch his hair. He was clearly inordinately vain about it. And, it being really great hair, she understood why.
But there she was. One of the chosen few who got to ruffle Brem’s hair.
So she was, if she was going to be completely honest, happy to be at the beginning of this relationship with Brem. She liked him a lot, she thought it could go good places. The only drawback was how many entirely strange women kept coming up to her on campus, all gushing about “Bremmy,” and how wonderful he was, and how they were so happy he’d found her. News traveled, she knew, but who were all these girls? It was the first sense of uneasiness she’d had about Brem. She did not see Brem on Sunday. Instead, she saw the endless round of girls who kept coming up to her, in the cafeteria, the library, the dorm itself, to talk about Brem, and what a great catch Brem was.
“So you’re dating Brem Tyler?” her roommate asked, finally, after the fifth perky blonde stopped by bubbling over about him.
Kate looked over at Heather. They almost never spoke, really. They were extremely different personality types, and Kate had decided that the easiest way to make it through this year was not to talk to her at all. Kate wasn’t surprised Heather knew who Brem Tyler was. “Fresh Perspective” was, after all, popular on campus. It was mostly the fact that so many women seemed to know him personally that was throwing her off. “Do you know him?”
“Sure.” Heather, without looking up, flipped a page of her book. “All women of a certain type here know him.”
“What does that mean?” asked Kate, irritated by the riddle of it.
“Well,” continued Heather, highlighting a line of her book, “Claire in my Econ class knows him, and you know how she is.”
“No,” said Kate, brusquely. “I don’t.”
Heather looked up at her, giving her a pitying gaze. “Oh, Kate. Honestly. Sometimes you’re so innocent. Your new boyfriend’s got that bedroom hair and those puppy-dog eyes and hangs out entirely with drunk sluts.”
Kate was so stunned that she couldn’t react for a second. She stared at Heather, who rolled her eyes at her silence and went back to her book. “That isn’t true,” she managed finally.
“Ask the next girl who comes in here if she’s got Brem programmed into her cell phone,” said Heather, negligently.
Kate turned away, tried to concentrate on the novel she was supposed to be reading for class, but found it impossible. What Heather was saying was ridiculous, of course it was. Sure, Brem did have bedroom hair and puppy-dog eyes. Sure, he was very good-looking and probably could be popular with any girl he wanted. But he wasn’t like that. She knew he wasn’t like that.
There was a knock on the door, and there was another drop-dead gorgeous girl, her hair a dramatic shade of red Kate knew had to be dyed. “You’re Kate, right?” she said.
“Yeah,” said Kate, dreading what was to come.
“I’m Chelsea. And I just want you to know that Brem seems crazy about you. I’m so happy for the two of you.”
“When did Brem tell you about me?” asked Kate, slowly.
“Last night. Well, I guess it was more like early morning.” Chelsea grinned.
Kate had parted ways with Brem about midnight, after a truly lovely and lingering good-night kiss. Which meant, sometime after that, he’d seen Chelsea the redhead.
Heather shifted on her bed to sit up. “Chelsea,” she said, pleasantly. “Can I see your phone?”
“Sure,” Chelsea replied, sunnily, handing it over.
Kate watched Heather press buttons on the phone, then silently hand it over to Kate. Kate looked down at it, at Brem’s number winking at her from the screen. She didn’t even have Brem’s cell phone number yet. Kate handed the cell phone back to Chelsea, forcing herself to smile.
It went like that the rest of the evening. Every beautiful girl who stopped by had Brem’s number in her cell phone. Except for Yunny, who was the only girl who also wanted to know what Brem was like. Apparently, all of the other girls already knew what he was like, an idea which made Kate even more uneasy.
She sat next to him in Twentieth-Century Novel the following day. He babbled at her enthusiastically, clearly not noticing that anything was wrong, and she managed to answer him when he asked her questions. He was happy, she thought. Happy to see her. Those beautiful, brown eyes of his lit right up the minute he caught sight of her. He was sweet, and nice, and it was ridiculous to suspect him of doing things with girls in the wee hours of the morning. Not Brem.
“After your class,” he said, turning to her when class was over, “d’you want to do something? Tea, maybe, or coffee if you really wanted, or--?”
She was being ridiculous, she thought. Absolutely ridiculous. “Yeah,” she said. “We’ll go to Tealuxe maybe.”
He grinned at her. He had one of the world’s best grins. She had to stop doubting him, she thought, and let him walk her to her class.
It was easy to think she was being hard on Brem when she was near him, when she was being subjected to the effect of what Heather had called his bedroom hair and his puppy-dog eyes. She sat in her class, barely paying attention, trying to come up with an innocent explanation for why every gorgeous woman on campus seemed to know Brem, and had even seen him right after her date with him on Saturday night.
He was waiting for her when she got out of class, leaning against one of the trees on the Yard, surrounded by dead leaves. He had his hands deep in his pockets, huddled into his overcoat. Brem was always cold. She’d noticed that about him. Even cool to the touch. As she was always cold, she found it ironic that she’d found the one guy who seemed to be even colder than she was.
He straightened when he saw her, grinning again, and reached automatically for her hand, which she handed him just as automatically. And then he did something he’d never done before, and used his grip on her hand to pull her forward and leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. He smiled at her as he pulled back, and she blinked up at him a little breathlessly.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello,” she said back, and then he winked at her, straightened completely, and began walking
There was something about the smoothness with which he’d just greeted her that made her wonder if maybe, well, she’d been a bit of a fool about him. He was very good-looking, and he was smart, and he was charming, and men like him didn’t show up on college campuses without the baggage of a girlfriend already unless they weren’t really as perfect as they seemed.
She swallowed as they walked, watching as Brem scuffled playfully at leaves as he led them. Brem was always brimming over with energy. She always had the impression that he was a few breaths away from bouncing with excitement at any given moment. He was swinging their hands, also playfully, and asking, “How was class?”
“It was…It was fine. I talked to Chelsea yesterday.”
“Chelsea who?” he asked, sounding unconcerned.
She looked up at him. She hadn’t really expected him to be such a breezy liar. And then she remembered, on his very first date, that he had claimed to be the best bluffer in the universe. “You don’t know her?”
He looked down at her, looking honestly surprised. “Does she know me?”
“She says she does.”
“Where does she live?”
“I have no idea.”
“Ah.” He shrugged, looking unconcerned, as if this were no big deal. “I don’t know, then. It’s possible. What did she have to say?”
Kate was vaguely aware that he’d asked a question, but she didn’t really hear it. “What?” she asked, dazedly, trying to figure out what all of this meant. Was he pretending not to know Chelsea? And why would he do that if he had nothing to hide?
“What did Chelsea have to say?” he repeated, patiently. He overenunciated her name, dramatically.
“I…Nothing. Nothing. I don’t even know why I…Nothing.”
“You okay?” he asked, sounding quizzical, as he held open the door of Tealuxe for her.
“Yeah,” she answered him.
It was crowded in Tealuxe. Far more crowded than it was when they went at night. “I’ll order you your regular if you get us a table,” Brem suggested. She always got the same tea at Tealuxe: crème de la Earl Grey. And of course Brem would have noticed that.
She made an affirmative noise, and found them a table in the back. He joined her after a second, with no tea. They would bring the pots in a little while, she knew. “Can I see your phone?” she asked him.
“My mobile?” he asked, sounding surprised, but fished it out of his coat pocket and handed it over. “It’s a good idea, actually. I keep meaning to ask you to put your number in there. I’m not normally the most punctual person. I live in fear that I’ll be late to meet you and I’ve no number to reach you at.”
Kate listened absently to his babbling, already a familiar background hum to her, as she scrolled through his contacts. “Brem, what do these mean?” she asked, because they looked almost like codes.
“What?” he responded.
“Hol 312. Pen 506.”
“Oh. They’re addresses,” he answered, lightly. “You know, dorm rooms. Holworthy, Pennypacker.”
“Addresses,” she repeated, staring down at them. No wonder he didn’t know Chelsea’s name, asked where she lived instead. He didn’t know her name. He only knew her address. “Should I put myself in here as ‘Wig 211?’”
“No, as Kate, of course,” he told her, sounding surprised she would ask.
She looked up at him, across the table from her, all messy hair and freckles. “Why is that an ‘of course?’ Why am I the ‘of course?’ When you’ve got every other woman in here as an address?”
“I…” He trailed off, looking confused. “What?”
She pushed her hands through her hair, trying to get those annoying, wispy bangs out of her eyes, and wondering how she had been so idiotic as to not notice before that he had been too good to be true. “It’s been fun, Brem, it really has.”
He was staring at her as if he really had no clue what she was talking about. “Welllllll,” he said, drawing out the word in that way she loved. “Good. I’m glad.”
“Yeah. So thanks. Really.” She handed him his cell phone back.
He took it but dropped it on the table immediately, leaning toward her. “Kate, what-”
“We really shouldn’t see each other anymore.”
“What?” He really sounded shell-shocked. “But-but-”
“Really,” she said again, standing quickly and grabbing her coat, because she’d gotten her point across, she thought, and now she just really had to get out of there. She almost ran right into the guy bringing them their teapots, and apologized hastily, not pausing in her retreat.
Brem, which was to be expected, did not give up. “Kate,” he said, as they broke free of the café and out onto the cold of the street. “What-”
“Oh, really,” she said, losing her temper at his persistence and turning to face him. “You don’t even know their names. You put them in your cell phone as addresses. Brem.”
“What are you talking about, Kate?” he asked in bewilderment.
“All of these women, Brem! The endless parade of women who all want to talk about you and your relationship with me! Why does every woman on campus know everything about you?”
“There is no one in the universe, Kate, who knows everything about me,” he bit out.
“No. I guess not. I would believe that, Brem. Because you’re certainly one of the best actors I’ve ever met.”
“I don’t act. At what point have I been acting?”
“Brem!” she shouted at him, because she wanted him just once to tell her the truth, for God’s sake. She noticed him take a step back in reaction. “On Saturday night, you left me off at Wigglesworth, and at some point after that, you went to see Chelsea. Except you don’t know that, because you don’t know her name.”
“Don’t shout,” he said, quietly. “There isn’t any need to shout.”
She realized they’d attracted a scene on the street, and knew immediately what he meant. “No,” she agreed. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Good-bye, Brem.” She turned to start walking.
“Kate-” he began.
She paused and looked back at him. “No. Really. Good-bye.”
********
He’d gone outside without his coat, and it was freezing, but he stood there and watched Kate walk briskly away from him, entirely stunned. He had no idea what had gone wrong there. Some woman named Chelsea, who had to be one of the women who he’d walked home on Saturday night. And the fact that he didn’t know their names, just their addresses. And he still wasn’t entirely sure what about that had upset Kate enough to make her shout at him like that.
He finally got cold enough to go back into Tealuxe. His coat was still draped over the back of the chair, and his mobile was still on the table, and their teapots were there now, her crème de la Earl Grey, and his latest choice of Golden Tippy Assam. Brem pulled on his coat and tucked the betraying mobile back into his pocket and left the teapots on the table.
He wandered a bit aimlessly, unsure of what he was supposed to do, then went home. Matt wasn’t there, and he didn’t know if that made him irritated or relieved. He tried to think who he could call to say he’d had a fight with Kate. He didn’t want to call his mother, because it was a bit embarrassing to admit something like that to his mother. He couldn’t call Athena, who’d never known about Kate in the first place.
Hesitating, he took out his mobile and scrolled through his contacts list. He stared at the name for a moment, before making up his mind and pressing “send.”
Jack picked up almost immediately, with “Brem? Is there something wrong?”
Bloody parents, thought Brem. They’d clearly put Jack on high alert to watch out for him while he was on Earth. “No,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong. At least, not end-of-the-universe wrong, so there’s no reason to call any ultimate red alert or anything.”
“How about just a regular red alert?” asked Jack.
Brem hoped he didn’t live to regret this but rushed out, “I was just calling to ask you a question. That’s it. Just one question.”
“What?” asked Jack.
And then Brem realized that he didn’t have just one question. He had a million questions. “Er,” he said, trying to select just one.
“Does this have to do with a girl?” asked Jack.
“Yes,” Brem said in relief. “How’d you know?”
“Because if it was anything else,” drawled Jack, “you’d’ve called your dad about it and not me. So what’s up?”
“Jack.” He sighed heavily. “I do not understand women.”
“Then you called the right person, didn’t you?”
“So you do understand them?” Brem clarified, in relief.
“Of course. I understand women, I understand men, aliens. Not Time Lords, though. Your father always was a tough nut to crack.”
“I don’t want to talk about that,” said Brem.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Jack assured him. There was a beat. “Entirely.”
“Moving on,” Brem inserted, hastily.
“Yeah. Tell me about the woman you don’t understand.”
“Her name is Kate and I…” Brem exhaled in frustration. “I don’t know, Jack, I thought things were going well, I mean, I thought they were going brilliantly and then she…I mean, I…I’ve no idea what I did, Jack. I was…I was…nice to her, and I was…I don’t know. I did something to ruin everything and I-”
“Brem,” Jack inserted, and his voice was soft.
“Yeah,” said Brem, pinching at the bridge of his nose.
“Not everything is your fault, you know. Sometimes things just happen, and it’s nobody’s fault. Sometimes, you can’t fix everything.”
Brem was silent. He fiddled with the mouse on his desk, nudging it across the mouse pad. People kept him telling him this. He wished they would stop. He had always hated these childhood fables, the way they streamlined everything into simplicity. Nothing in the universe “just happened.” Nothing. And there was nothing in the universe he couldn’t fix. There was only his own shortcoming in failing to fix it just so, or in time.
“Right, Brem?” asked Jack, with that touch of steel that told Brem he was supposed to agree.
“Yes,” he said. “Yes, I know.”
“You tell that to all of us to shut us up, don’t you?”
Brem was silent.
Jack sighed. “Oh, Brem. You’re way too much like your father for your own good. If you’re not going to believe me when I tell you that you can’t control everything, at least believe me when I tell you this: Women will always be a mystery. What was the argument about?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t understand it. Something about addresses or something.”
“It just happens, Brem, sometimes, okay? It just happens. Don’t lose sleep over it.”
“I don’t really sleep, Jack.”
“You Time Lords are really so difficult, you know it?”
Brem smiled a bit, remembering a phrase from his childhood that he hadn’t used in so very long. “We’re complicated and Gallifreyan,” he said.
“Yeah, tell me about it. Seriously, Brem. Stop. Your mother tells me that you’re not supposed to have a furrow between your brow at Christmas.”
“She told you that?” Brem complained.
Jack laughed. “You almost never sound like a teenager, but you definitely did just then.”
“Great,” grumbled Brem.
“Listen. Find another girl, shag her, you’ll feel better.”
“This is great advice, Jack, thanks.”
“Don’t tell your mother I told you that.”
“Good-bye, Jack,” said Brem, and flipped his mobile closed and collapsed back onto his bed.
Well, he thought. That had accomplished nothing.
He didn’t know what to think, really. Maybe Jack was right. Maybe some things just weren’t his fault. But he wasn’t completely thick. He’d done something to upset Kate, enough that she’d shouted at him-and bloody hell, he hated being shouted at and always had-he just didn’t know what exactly he’d done. Something about the addresses in the mobile. And Holworthy 207 who he’d walked home on Saturday night after the date with Kate. Which had gone really well, he’d thought. Really very well. Hadn’t it?
There was a knock on the door, and he hoped it wasn’t Digger. He wondered if he could pretend to be asleep.
“Brem?” came his sister’s voice.
Damn, he thought. He was not really in the mood to talk to his sister. Considering he’d never told her about Kate in the first place. “Yeah,” he responded. “Just a second.” He rolled himself out of bed and pulled the door open. “Both of you,” he said, in surprise, finding both Athena and Fortuna in front of him.
“Yeah,” said Theenie. “Joint visit. You okay?”
“I…’ve got a headache.”
Fortuna gave him a hug, and he hugged her back. “I made you chocolate biscuits,” she said, brightly, waving a bag around at him.
“Wellllllll, aren’t you a lifesaver? Just the thing for headaches,” he managed, taking the bag and following them both into his room.
Athena settled on Matt’s bed. He sat next to Fortuna on his own and dug into the biscuits, handing them around.
“So,” he said, around the first bite. “Long time no see. What have you lot been up to? Biscuits are brilliant, Fort, by the way.”
Fort grinned, then said, “There has been a lot of running for our lives lately.”
“Hasn’t been a dull moment,” Theenie agreed.
“It’s been so busy that Mum told Dad we’re not allowed to leave the Vortex for at least four days, Earth relative time.”
“Four days?” repeated Brem. “It’s a weird, random number, isn’t it?”
“It’s how much time she estimates we have ‘til we run out of milk,” Athena explained.
“Ah. Clever,” said Brem.
“The last planet we went to was this planet called Midnight, which was supposed to be a pleasure planet.”
“Well, it was a pleasure planet for Mum and me,” said Athena.
“They stayed at this spa, but I went with Dad to see the sapphire waterfalls.”
“Sounds fun,” said Brem. He could see that very clearly, Fortuna who would follow their father everywhere, easily foregoing a girly spa day for an outing with Dad instead.
“We were almost killed,” said Fortuna, nonchalantly. “Well, Dad was. His voice got stolen. I wouldn’t let anyone kill him, of course. I ended up having to bite one of the people on the shuttle.”
Brem stared at her. “What?” he managed, finally.
“Well, I couldn’t think what else to do.”
Brem looked over at Athena.
“It is a very long story,” said Athena. “But trust me, we deserved a bit of Vortex after that one.”
“Poor Dad,” said Brem. “I’m sure he was trying.”
“Of course he was,” Fortuna said, loyally.
“You should call him,” Athena added.
“I would have. No one told me this was going on.” He gave Theenie a hard look.
“Well, Brem, I’m sorry, I was busy living it,” she replied, tartly.
“Well,” he said, and then grinned at Fort. “Thank God Fortuna was there.”
Fortuna reached for another biscuit. “That’s what Dad said, too. So what’s been going on here at university?”
“Oh,” he said, lightly. “Well, no one stole my voice.”
“Bet you didn’t have to bite anyone, either,” said Fortuna.
Brem knew he blushed, because he was busy wondering if a playful nip counted. He cleared his throat and changed the subject. “My friend Digger made it to Level 9-Delta on Quest for Blue Bhume.”
Fortuna’s eyes widened. “Level 9-Delta?”
“I know. He’s a strangely adept videogame player for a man with so few brain cells left.”
“Show me how he does it.” Fortuna moved over, setting the videogame up, and they spent a pleasant couple of hours playing Quest for Blue Bhume and making their way through Fortuna’s biscuits until she protested that he had to save some for Matt.
“Matt’ll be sorry he missed you,” Brem told them, when Theenie decided they’d stretched how long they could stay and still allow her to manipulate both of their timelines so they wouldn’t be missed.
“Tell him we said hi,” said Fortuna, blushing, “and to enjoy the biscuits.”
“Oh, he’ll love the biscuits. Except he’ll call them cookies.”
Fortuna gave him a hug, and he hugged her back a bit closer than he would have without the Midnight story. “You’re alright, right?” he asked. “And don’t tell me you’re always alright.”
“I’m okay. Promise. Dad had it much worse than me, really.”
Brem turned to Athena.
“What about you?” she asked, looking at him, critically. “Always alright?”
“Well, yes, always.”
“If you needed us, you could always have phoned.”
“I would have. I’m fine, really.”
“Okay.” Athena leaned forward and hugged him tightly. “Good. We’ll visit again soon.”
He watched them walk down the hallway and out of the dorm, then walked back in and called his father. His dad was happy to hear from him, and babbled happily to him about the TARDIS, with a forced cheerfulness that told Brem his sisters had been right and Midnight had been tough.
Brem still felt like it was impossibly early when he finished talking to his father, and he wondered if this day was ever going to end. He pulled his journal over to him, although he didn’t much feel like writing any of the events of this endless day down in it. Matt walked in, saving him the effort, but Matt didn’t seem talkative.
“Why aren’t you out with Kate?” he asked, when he walked in.
“Why would I be?” asked Brem, in response.
“You had Twentieth-Century Novel today. You’ve fallen into a routine of not coming home until very, very late on days when you have Twentieth-Century Novel.”
“Yes,” said Brem. “Wellllll.” He tried to think of what else to say. He really didn’t want to say that Kate had apparently broken up with him. Matt already thought he was ridiculously thick when it came to women. He didn’t really want to confirm it so spectacularly. Maybe he could fix the thing with Kate. He could fix anything.
“I’m exhausted,” Matt said, around a yawn, grabbing his toothbrush. “I’m going to just crash.” He wandered back out of the room, clearly set to go to bed.
Brem sighed and tossed the journal aside. He didn’t want to write. Things were very bad when he didn’t even want to write. He pretended to be asleep when Matt got back, and then spent the remainder of the night laying on his back, staring up at the ceiling.
It was the first time in a very long time that he had missed so acutely the hum of the TARDIS.
Next Chapter
Author - earlgreytea68
Rating - General
Characters - Jack, OCs
Spoilers - None
Disclaimer - I don't own them and I don't make money off of them, but I don't like to dwell on that, so let's move on. (Except for the kids. They're all mine.)
Summary - Brem goes to university.
Author's Notes - Many thanks to jlrpuck, who beta'd this even while being (I'm sure) a flawless hostess to arctacuda and bscotchpuma .
Many, many, many thanks to Kristin, for all the ideas. Thanks also to bouncy_castle79, who once again gave it the first outside-eyes read-through.
The gorgeous icon was created by swankkatfor me, commissioned by jlrpuckfor my birthday.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
Chapter Eleven
She was dating Brem Tyler.
They even did something as ordinary as dinner and a movie. They had a good-natured debate on the movie they ought to see, until she wheedled him into the period drama she wanted by nuzzling a bit at his cheek, which threw him off enough that he stammered his agreement. And he said some of those typically confusing things he said, something about the inaccuracies in the drama, and she asked if there was nothing he didn’t know everything about, and he seriously answered, “American football, really. I don’t understand the game at all.”
He was, as she had accused him of being, just impossibly cute. Ridiculously adorable. An alarmingly good kisser, once she told him to get it over with and kiss her already. Brem, she’d discerned, was a weird combination of absolute confidence and endearing uncertainty. She’d figured out that there were times when she just needed to take the lead. If she wanted Brem Tyler to kiss her, she could have waited for him to make his move-which she suspected would be after a few weeks of meals and bookstores and movies-or just make it for him. And that was, yes, impossibly cute.
She liked him. She genuinely liked him. He wasn’t like anyone she’d ever met before, and that was fascinating to her. She could listen to him ramble on about a topic forever and not grow bored. He was smart and he was funny and he was one of the best listeners she’d ever met. She was completely addicted to the way the freckles on his nose would scrunch up whenever he wrinkled his nose in concentration when she said something that he found particularly thought-provoking. She loved the habit he had of sometimes ruffling his hand through his hair, leaving it sticking up every which way. His hair was very thick and very soft, even though she suspected it was also full of gel, and she had developed an almost uncontrollable desire to have her hands in it as often as possible. He didn’t seem to mind that so much when they were in the middle of kissing, but he seemed to just tolerate it when they weren’t kissing, and that delighted her in a way. She didn’t think Brem Tyler let many people touch his hair. He was clearly inordinately vain about it. And, it being really great hair, she understood why.
But there she was. One of the chosen few who got to ruffle Brem’s hair.
So she was, if she was going to be completely honest, happy to be at the beginning of this relationship with Brem. She liked him a lot, she thought it could go good places. The only drawback was how many entirely strange women kept coming up to her on campus, all gushing about “Bremmy,” and how wonderful he was, and how they were so happy he’d found her. News traveled, she knew, but who were all these girls? It was the first sense of uneasiness she’d had about Brem. She did not see Brem on Sunday. Instead, she saw the endless round of girls who kept coming up to her, in the cafeteria, the library, the dorm itself, to talk about Brem, and what a great catch Brem was.
“So you’re dating Brem Tyler?” her roommate asked, finally, after the fifth perky blonde stopped by bubbling over about him.
Kate looked over at Heather. They almost never spoke, really. They were extremely different personality types, and Kate had decided that the easiest way to make it through this year was not to talk to her at all. Kate wasn’t surprised Heather knew who Brem Tyler was. “Fresh Perspective” was, after all, popular on campus. It was mostly the fact that so many women seemed to know him personally that was throwing her off. “Do you know him?”
“Sure.” Heather, without looking up, flipped a page of her book. “All women of a certain type here know him.”
“What does that mean?” asked Kate, irritated by the riddle of it.
“Well,” continued Heather, highlighting a line of her book, “Claire in my Econ class knows him, and you know how she is.”
“No,” said Kate, brusquely. “I don’t.”
Heather looked up at her, giving her a pitying gaze. “Oh, Kate. Honestly. Sometimes you’re so innocent. Your new boyfriend’s got that bedroom hair and those puppy-dog eyes and hangs out entirely with drunk sluts.”
Kate was so stunned that she couldn’t react for a second. She stared at Heather, who rolled her eyes at her silence and went back to her book. “That isn’t true,” she managed finally.
“Ask the next girl who comes in here if she’s got Brem programmed into her cell phone,” said Heather, negligently.
Kate turned away, tried to concentrate on the novel she was supposed to be reading for class, but found it impossible. What Heather was saying was ridiculous, of course it was. Sure, Brem did have bedroom hair and puppy-dog eyes. Sure, he was very good-looking and probably could be popular with any girl he wanted. But he wasn’t like that. She knew he wasn’t like that.
There was a knock on the door, and there was another drop-dead gorgeous girl, her hair a dramatic shade of red Kate knew had to be dyed. “You’re Kate, right?” she said.
“Yeah,” said Kate, dreading what was to come.
“I’m Chelsea. And I just want you to know that Brem seems crazy about you. I’m so happy for the two of you.”
“When did Brem tell you about me?” asked Kate, slowly.
“Last night. Well, I guess it was more like early morning.” Chelsea grinned.
Kate had parted ways with Brem about midnight, after a truly lovely and lingering good-night kiss. Which meant, sometime after that, he’d seen Chelsea the redhead.
Heather shifted on her bed to sit up. “Chelsea,” she said, pleasantly. “Can I see your phone?”
“Sure,” Chelsea replied, sunnily, handing it over.
Kate watched Heather press buttons on the phone, then silently hand it over to Kate. Kate looked down at it, at Brem’s number winking at her from the screen. She didn’t even have Brem’s cell phone number yet. Kate handed the cell phone back to Chelsea, forcing herself to smile.
It went like that the rest of the evening. Every beautiful girl who stopped by had Brem’s number in her cell phone. Except for Yunny, who was the only girl who also wanted to know what Brem was like. Apparently, all of the other girls already knew what he was like, an idea which made Kate even more uneasy.
She sat next to him in Twentieth-Century Novel the following day. He babbled at her enthusiastically, clearly not noticing that anything was wrong, and she managed to answer him when he asked her questions. He was happy, she thought. Happy to see her. Those beautiful, brown eyes of his lit right up the minute he caught sight of her. He was sweet, and nice, and it was ridiculous to suspect him of doing things with girls in the wee hours of the morning. Not Brem.
“After your class,” he said, turning to her when class was over, “d’you want to do something? Tea, maybe, or coffee if you really wanted, or--?”
She was being ridiculous, she thought. Absolutely ridiculous. “Yeah,” she said. “We’ll go to Tealuxe maybe.”
He grinned at her. He had one of the world’s best grins. She had to stop doubting him, she thought, and let him walk her to her class.
It was easy to think she was being hard on Brem when she was near him, when she was being subjected to the effect of what Heather had called his bedroom hair and his puppy-dog eyes. She sat in her class, barely paying attention, trying to come up with an innocent explanation for why every gorgeous woman on campus seemed to know Brem, and had even seen him right after her date with him on Saturday night.
He was waiting for her when she got out of class, leaning against one of the trees on the Yard, surrounded by dead leaves. He had his hands deep in his pockets, huddled into his overcoat. Brem was always cold. She’d noticed that about him. Even cool to the touch. As she was always cold, she found it ironic that she’d found the one guy who seemed to be even colder than she was.
He straightened when he saw her, grinning again, and reached automatically for her hand, which she handed him just as automatically. And then he did something he’d never done before, and used his grip on her hand to pull her forward and leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. He smiled at her as he pulled back, and she blinked up at him a little breathlessly.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello,” she said back, and then he winked at her, straightened completely, and began walking
There was something about the smoothness with which he’d just greeted her that made her wonder if maybe, well, she’d been a bit of a fool about him. He was very good-looking, and he was smart, and he was charming, and men like him didn’t show up on college campuses without the baggage of a girlfriend already unless they weren’t really as perfect as they seemed.
She swallowed as they walked, watching as Brem scuffled playfully at leaves as he led them. Brem was always brimming over with energy. She always had the impression that he was a few breaths away from bouncing with excitement at any given moment. He was swinging their hands, also playfully, and asking, “How was class?”
“It was…It was fine. I talked to Chelsea yesterday.”
“Chelsea who?” he asked, sounding unconcerned.
She looked up at him. She hadn’t really expected him to be such a breezy liar. And then she remembered, on his very first date, that he had claimed to be the best bluffer in the universe. “You don’t know her?”
He looked down at her, looking honestly surprised. “Does she know me?”
“She says she does.”
“Where does she live?”
“I have no idea.”
“Ah.” He shrugged, looking unconcerned, as if this were no big deal. “I don’t know, then. It’s possible. What did she have to say?”
Kate was vaguely aware that he’d asked a question, but she didn’t really hear it. “What?” she asked, dazedly, trying to figure out what all of this meant. Was he pretending not to know Chelsea? And why would he do that if he had nothing to hide?
“What did Chelsea have to say?” he repeated, patiently. He overenunciated her name, dramatically.
“I…Nothing. Nothing. I don’t even know why I…Nothing.”
“You okay?” he asked, sounding quizzical, as he held open the door of Tealuxe for her.
“Yeah,” she answered him.
It was crowded in Tealuxe. Far more crowded than it was when they went at night. “I’ll order you your regular if you get us a table,” Brem suggested. She always got the same tea at Tealuxe: crème de la Earl Grey. And of course Brem would have noticed that.
She made an affirmative noise, and found them a table in the back. He joined her after a second, with no tea. They would bring the pots in a little while, she knew. “Can I see your phone?” she asked him.
“My mobile?” he asked, sounding surprised, but fished it out of his coat pocket and handed it over. “It’s a good idea, actually. I keep meaning to ask you to put your number in there. I’m not normally the most punctual person. I live in fear that I’ll be late to meet you and I’ve no number to reach you at.”
Kate listened absently to his babbling, already a familiar background hum to her, as she scrolled through his contacts. “Brem, what do these mean?” she asked, because they looked almost like codes.
“What?” he responded.
“Hol 312. Pen 506.”
“Oh. They’re addresses,” he answered, lightly. “You know, dorm rooms. Holworthy, Pennypacker.”
“Addresses,” she repeated, staring down at them. No wonder he didn’t know Chelsea’s name, asked where she lived instead. He didn’t know her name. He only knew her address. “Should I put myself in here as ‘Wig 211?’”
“No, as Kate, of course,” he told her, sounding surprised she would ask.
She looked up at him, across the table from her, all messy hair and freckles. “Why is that an ‘of course?’ Why am I the ‘of course?’ When you’ve got every other woman in here as an address?”
“I…” He trailed off, looking confused. “What?”
She pushed her hands through her hair, trying to get those annoying, wispy bangs out of her eyes, and wondering how she had been so idiotic as to not notice before that he had been too good to be true. “It’s been fun, Brem, it really has.”
He was staring at her as if he really had no clue what she was talking about. “Welllllll,” he said, drawing out the word in that way she loved. “Good. I’m glad.”
“Yeah. So thanks. Really.” She handed him his cell phone back.
He took it but dropped it on the table immediately, leaning toward her. “Kate, what-”
“We really shouldn’t see each other anymore.”
“What?” He really sounded shell-shocked. “But-but-”
“Really,” she said again, standing quickly and grabbing her coat, because she’d gotten her point across, she thought, and now she just really had to get out of there. She almost ran right into the guy bringing them their teapots, and apologized hastily, not pausing in her retreat.
Brem, which was to be expected, did not give up. “Kate,” he said, as they broke free of the café and out onto the cold of the street. “What-”
“Oh, really,” she said, losing her temper at his persistence and turning to face him. “You don’t even know their names. You put them in your cell phone as addresses. Brem.”
“What are you talking about, Kate?” he asked in bewilderment.
“All of these women, Brem! The endless parade of women who all want to talk about you and your relationship with me! Why does every woman on campus know everything about you?”
“There is no one in the universe, Kate, who knows everything about me,” he bit out.
“No. I guess not. I would believe that, Brem. Because you’re certainly one of the best actors I’ve ever met.”
“I don’t act. At what point have I been acting?”
“Brem!” she shouted at him, because she wanted him just once to tell her the truth, for God’s sake. She noticed him take a step back in reaction. “On Saturday night, you left me off at Wigglesworth, and at some point after that, you went to see Chelsea. Except you don’t know that, because you don’t know her name.”
“Don’t shout,” he said, quietly. “There isn’t any need to shout.”
She realized they’d attracted a scene on the street, and knew immediately what he meant. “No,” she agreed. “You’re right. I’m sorry. Good-bye, Brem.” She turned to start walking.
“Kate-” he began.
She paused and looked back at him. “No. Really. Good-bye.”
********
He’d gone outside without his coat, and it was freezing, but he stood there and watched Kate walk briskly away from him, entirely stunned. He had no idea what had gone wrong there. Some woman named Chelsea, who had to be one of the women who he’d walked home on Saturday night. And the fact that he didn’t know their names, just their addresses. And he still wasn’t entirely sure what about that had upset Kate enough to make her shout at him like that.
He finally got cold enough to go back into Tealuxe. His coat was still draped over the back of the chair, and his mobile was still on the table, and their teapots were there now, her crème de la Earl Grey, and his latest choice of Golden Tippy Assam. Brem pulled on his coat and tucked the betraying mobile back into his pocket and left the teapots on the table.
He wandered a bit aimlessly, unsure of what he was supposed to do, then went home. Matt wasn’t there, and he didn’t know if that made him irritated or relieved. He tried to think who he could call to say he’d had a fight with Kate. He didn’t want to call his mother, because it was a bit embarrassing to admit something like that to his mother. He couldn’t call Athena, who’d never known about Kate in the first place.
Hesitating, he took out his mobile and scrolled through his contacts list. He stared at the name for a moment, before making up his mind and pressing “send.”
Jack picked up almost immediately, with “Brem? Is there something wrong?”
Bloody parents, thought Brem. They’d clearly put Jack on high alert to watch out for him while he was on Earth. “No,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong. At least, not end-of-the-universe wrong, so there’s no reason to call any ultimate red alert or anything.”
“How about just a regular red alert?” asked Jack.
Brem hoped he didn’t live to regret this but rushed out, “I was just calling to ask you a question. That’s it. Just one question.”
“What?” asked Jack.
And then Brem realized that he didn’t have just one question. He had a million questions. “Er,” he said, trying to select just one.
“Does this have to do with a girl?” asked Jack.
“Yes,” Brem said in relief. “How’d you know?”
“Because if it was anything else,” drawled Jack, “you’d’ve called your dad about it and not me. So what’s up?”
“Jack.” He sighed heavily. “I do not understand women.”
“Then you called the right person, didn’t you?”
“So you do understand them?” Brem clarified, in relief.
“Of course. I understand women, I understand men, aliens. Not Time Lords, though. Your father always was a tough nut to crack.”
“I don’t want to talk about that,” said Brem.
“I didn’t mean it that way,” Jack assured him. There was a beat. “Entirely.”
“Moving on,” Brem inserted, hastily.
“Yeah. Tell me about the woman you don’t understand.”
“Her name is Kate and I…” Brem exhaled in frustration. “I don’t know, Jack, I thought things were going well, I mean, I thought they were going brilliantly and then she…I mean, I…I’ve no idea what I did, Jack. I was…I was…nice to her, and I was…I don’t know. I did something to ruin everything and I-”
“Brem,” Jack inserted, and his voice was soft.
“Yeah,” said Brem, pinching at the bridge of his nose.
“Not everything is your fault, you know. Sometimes things just happen, and it’s nobody’s fault. Sometimes, you can’t fix everything.”
Brem was silent. He fiddled with the mouse on his desk, nudging it across the mouse pad. People kept him telling him this. He wished they would stop. He had always hated these childhood fables, the way they streamlined everything into simplicity. Nothing in the universe “just happened.” Nothing. And there was nothing in the universe he couldn’t fix. There was only his own shortcoming in failing to fix it just so, or in time.
“Right, Brem?” asked Jack, with that touch of steel that told Brem he was supposed to agree.
“Yes,” he said. “Yes, I know.”
“You tell that to all of us to shut us up, don’t you?”
Brem was silent.
Jack sighed. “Oh, Brem. You’re way too much like your father for your own good. If you’re not going to believe me when I tell you that you can’t control everything, at least believe me when I tell you this: Women will always be a mystery. What was the argument about?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t understand it. Something about addresses or something.”
“It just happens, Brem, sometimes, okay? It just happens. Don’t lose sleep over it.”
“I don’t really sleep, Jack.”
“You Time Lords are really so difficult, you know it?”
Brem smiled a bit, remembering a phrase from his childhood that he hadn’t used in so very long. “We’re complicated and Gallifreyan,” he said.
“Yeah, tell me about it. Seriously, Brem. Stop. Your mother tells me that you’re not supposed to have a furrow between your brow at Christmas.”
“She told you that?” Brem complained.
Jack laughed. “You almost never sound like a teenager, but you definitely did just then.”
“Great,” grumbled Brem.
“Listen. Find another girl, shag her, you’ll feel better.”
“This is great advice, Jack, thanks.”
“Don’t tell your mother I told you that.”
“Good-bye, Jack,” said Brem, and flipped his mobile closed and collapsed back onto his bed.
Well, he thought. That had accomplished nothing.
He didn’t know what to think, really. Maybe Jack was right. Maybe some things just weren’t his fault. But he wasn’t completely thick. He’d done something to upset Kate, enough that she’d shouted at him-and bloody hell, he hated being shouted at and always had-he just didn’t know what exactly he’d done. Something about the addresses in the mobile. And Holworthy 207 who he’d walked home on Saturday night after the date with Kate. Which had gone really well, he’d thought. Really very well. Hadn’t it?
There was a knock on the door, and he hoped it wasn’t Digger. He wondered if he could pretend to be asleep.
“Brem?” came his sister’s voice.
Damn, he thought. He was not really in the mood to talk to his sister. Considering he’d never told her about Kate in the first place. “Yeah,” he responded. “Just a second.” He rolled himself out of bed and pulled the door open. “Both of you,” he said, in surprise, finding both Athena and Fortuna in front of him.
“Yeah,” said Theenie. “Joint visit. You okay?”
“I…’ve got a headache.”
Fortuna gave him a hug, and he hugged her back. “I made you chocolate biscuits,” she said, brightly, waving a bag around at him.
“Wellllllll, aren’t you a lifesaver? Just the thing for headaches,” he managed, taking the bag and following them both into his room.
Athena settled on Matt’s bed. He sat next to Fortuna on his own and dug into the biscuits, handing them around.
“So,” he said, around the first bite. “Long time no see. What have you lot been up to? Biscuits are brilliant, Fort, by the way.”
Fort grinned, then said, “There has been a lot of running for our lives lately.”
“Hasn’t been a dull moment,” Theenie agreed.
“It’s been so busy that Mum told Dad we’re not allowed to leave the Vortex for at least four days, Earth relative time.”
“Four days?” repeated Brem. “It’s a weird, random number, isn’t it?”
“It’s how much time she estimates we have ‘til we run out of milk,” Athena explained.
“Ah. Clever,” said Brem.
“The last planet we went to was this planet called Midnight, which was supposed to be a pleasure planet.”
“Well, it was a pleasure planet for Mum and me,” said Athena.
“They stayed at this spa, but I went with Dad to see the sapphire waterfalls.”
“Sounds fun,” said Brem. He could see that very clearly, Fortuna who would follow their father everywhere, easily foregoing a girly spa day for an outing with Dad instead.
“We were almost killed,” said Fortuna, nonchalantly. “Well, Dad was. His voice got stolen. I wouldn’t let anyone kill him, of course. I ended up having to bite one of the people on the shuttle.”
Brem stared at her. “What?” he managed, finally.
“Well, I couldn’t think what else to do.”
Brem looked over at Athena.
“It is a very long story,” said Athena. “But trust me, we deserved a bit of Vortex after that one.”
“Poor Dad,” said Brem. “I’m sure he was trying.”
“Of course he was,” Fortuna said, loyally.
“You should call him,” Athena added.
“I would have. No one told me this was going on.” He gave Theenie a hard look.
“Well, Brem, I’m sorry, I was busy living it,” she replied, tartly.
“Well,” he said, and then grinned at Fort. “Thank God Fortuna was there.”
Fortuna reached for another biscuit. “That’s what Dad said, too. So what’s been going on here at university?”
“Oh,” he said, lightly. “Well, no one stole my voice.”
“Bet you didn’t have to bite anyone, either,” said Fortuna.
Brem knew he blushed, because he was busy wondering if a playful nip counted. He cleared his throat and changed the subject. “My friend Digger made it to Level 9-Delta on Quest for Blue Bhume.”
Fortuna’s eyes widened. “Level 9-Delta?”
“I know. He’s a strangely adept videogame player for a man with so few brain cells left.”
“Show me how he does it.” Fortuna moved over, setting the videogame up, and they spent a pleasant couple of hours playing Quest for Blue Bhume and making their way through Fortuna’s biscuits until she protested that he had to save some for Matt.
“Matt’ll be sorry he missed you,” Brem told them, when Theenie decided they’d stretched how long they could stay and still allow her to manipulate both of their timelines so they wouldn’t be missed.
“Tell him we said hi,” said Fortuna, blushing, “and to enjoy the biscuits.”
“Oh, he’ll love the biscuits. Except he’ll call them cookies.”
Fortuna gave him a hug, and he hugged her back a bit closer than he would have without the Midnight story. “You’re alright, right?” he asked. “And don’t tell me you’re always alright.”
“I’m okay. Promise. Dad had it much worse than me, really.”
Brem turned to Athena.
“What about you?” she asked, looking at him, critically. “Always alright?”
“Well, yes, always.”
“If you needed us, you could always have phoned.”
“I would have. I’m fine, really.”
“Okay.” Athena leaned forward and hugged him tightly. “Good. We’ll visit again soon.”
He watched them walk down the hallway and out of the dorm, then walked back in and called his father. His dad was happy to hear from him, and babbled happily to him about the TARDIS, with a forced cheerfulness that told Brem his sisters had been right and Midnight had been tough.
Brem still felt like it was impossibly early when he finished talking to his father, and he wondered if this day was ever going to end. He pulled his journal over to him, although he didn’t much feel like writing any of the events of this endless day down in it. Matt walked in, saving him the effort, but Matt didn’t seem talkative.
“Why aren’t you out with Kate?” he asked, when he walked in.
“Why would I be?” asked Brem, in response.
“You had Twentieth-Century Novel today. You’ve fallen into a routine of not coming home until very, very late on days when you have Twentieth-Century Novel.”
“Yes,” said Brem. “Wellllll.” He tried to think of what else to say. He really didn’t want to say that Kate had apparently broken up with him. Matt already thought he was ridiculously thick when it came to women. He didn’t really want to confirm it so spectacularly. Maybe he could fix the thing with Kate. He could fix anything.
“I’m exhausted,” Matt said, around a yawn, grabbing his toothbrush. “I’m going to just crash.” He wandered back out of the room, clearly set to go to bed.
Brem sighed and tossed the journal aside. He didn’t want to write. Things were very bad when he didn’t even want to write. He pretended to be asleep when Matt got back, and then spent the remainder of the night laying on his back, staring up at the ceiling.
It was the first time in a very long time that he had missed so acutely the hum of the TARDIS.
Next Chapter