Chaos Theory on Dimensionally Stable Objects on Earth College Campuses (5/27-ish)
Title - Chaos Theory on Dimensionally Stable Objects on Earth College Campuses (5/27-ish)
Author - earlgreytea68
Rating - General
Characters - 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 is so sweet and betas on command when I hint that I need another chapter.
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.
I continue to be swamped at work--for those who have asked, I'm an attorney, a career I decidedly do not recommend--but I've been granted Sunday off, so I may be able to catch up on comments.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
Chapter Five
Brem loved school. That probably should have been predictable, but the truth was he just bloody adored it. After the first full day of classes, he called the TARDIS and spent an hour reading his syllabi out loud to his father so he could be jealous of all the many things Brem was going to debate with everyone. By the time the week was over, Brem was wondering how he had ever thought that coming to Harvard might be a bad idea. It was the most brilliant idea ever, as he enthusiastically told his mother.
“I’m glad you’re having fun,” Athena said, when it was her turn to talk to him, “but Fort misses the hell out of you.”
“Does she?” asked Brem, concerned.
“I mean, I hardly miss you at all-”
“Welllllll, of course not,” drawled Brem.
“-but she’s a bit devastated. She’s been baking you cakes to send to you.”
“Good. I can’t wait.”
Athena dropped her voice. “I’m thinking maybe a teleport, though.”
“A teleport?”
“So she can whip over to see you easily.”
“Mum and Dad are never going to let us build a teleport between the TARDIS and here.”
“Which is why we’ve got to be clever and secretive about it.”
“It shouldn’t be that hard,” Brem decided.
“Not at all. If you set up a receiver for us, we could latch onto it wherever we are and project ourselves to it.”
“Right. Easy enough. I’ll get started on it tonight.”
Brem walked down to the Square and bought a radio that he then brought back to the dorm room, and Matt found him later, sitting on his bed, sonic screwdriver between his teeth, as he put the finishing touches on his teleport receiver.
“What are you up to?” Matt asked.
Brem took the screwdriver out of his mouth and waved his hand around. “More…science.”
“Ah.” Matt sat on his bed and looked across at Brem.
Brem looked back at him. “What?” he asked, hoping he wasn’t going to get an awkward question about the sonic screwdriver.
Matt grinned. “Want to go to a party?”
“A party? Where?”
“I ran into some guys who live off-campus, and got us invited to a party at their apartment. Not bad, huh?”
“I guess not,” said Brem, who wasn’t sure why he was supposed to be impressed by this.
“So, wanna go?”
Why not? thought Brem. It was part of his human experience he was supposed to be having. “Sure.”
So it was that he and Matt, shortly after eleven, walked through the mild night across Harvard Yard and into the outlying neighborhood. It was pretty easy to find the apartment in question, as there was loud music and a profusion of people pouring it out, gathered tightly on the balcony. Brem didn’t see why the invitation had been such a big deal. It looked as if everyone in the universe had been invited. And, at that thought, Brem hoped he didn’t run into Owtvfa aliens.
They walked right into the apartment (and once again Brem wondered what the point of the invitation had been). Matt, without asking him, retrieved him a beer and handed it to him. Brem frowned, because he had no intention of drinking. Alcohol had disastrous effects on him. But he took the beer to have something to hold.
There was a knot of students next to them, and they were laughing uproariously about something, and Matt was trying to insert himself into the conversation, to see what the topic was. Brem, eyes searching the room for Owtvfa aliens, heard dimly something about “twenty-six concentrations.” Brem had inherited his father’s very fair skin, and he could feel every bit of the blush now. He wanted to sink through the floor in embarrassment. Especially when Matt exclaimed, “Oh! Twenty-six concentrations! I know that freshman! That’s my roommate! Brem! Brem!”
Brem wished he could pretend not to hear the shouting but that was attracting more attention so he turned to Matt and smiled winningly.
“Brem! Everyone’s talking about your twenty-six concentrations!”
“Yes,” said Brem. “Isn’t that brilliant.”
“He’s from London,” Matt confided to the guys he was talking to.
“Twenty-six concentrations?” asked one of the guys, sounding impressed. “What would possess you?”
“Tell them about your dry sense of humor,” said Matt.
“You have a dry sense of humor?” said the guy.
“Very dry,” affirmed Brem.
The guy smiled and held out his hand. “I’m Brian Keough.”
“Brem Tyler,” said Brem, shaking his hand.
“Brem Tyler from London who wants to do twenty-six concentrations.”
“Why is twenty-six so odd?” asked Brem. “It’s just healthy curiosity. I have an opinion about things.”
“About everything, apparently,” said Brian.
“Wellllllll, most things.”
“You know what’s interesting?” asked Brian.
“What?”
“Do you write?”
Brem blinked in surprise. “Do I what?”
“I’m editor-in-chief of the Crimson, and we’d had this thought about doing a column on the freshman perspective, but we had no idea how to find a freshman to write it. And now you show up with an opinion about everything and twenty-six concentrations, and, Brem Tyler, if you can write, you just might have a column in the Crimson.”
“I can write,” said Brem.
“Stop by the Crimson on Monday. Can you do that? What time works for you?”
“I-Oh, damn. Matt.” He pulled Matt out of a conversation with a girl.
“What?” demanded Matt, crossly.
“Matt, what’s my class schedule on Monday?”
Brian looked amused. “What’s this, then?”
Matt rolled his eyes. “He’s bad with schedules. I don’t know, you could probably squeeze something in at two o’clock, I think.”
“Two,” said Brem to Brian. “Does two work?”
“It’s perfect. Bring writing samples.”
Brem watched Brian move off to mingle with the next group. Writing samples? He didn’t really have writing samples. Save for his journal and his abandoned application essays. But it didn’t matter. He’d figure something out and he’d have a column, all to his own, to write about whatever he wanted. It sounded perfect.
Brem looked at his beer. The last time he’d had alcohol he’d been five years old. Surely he could handle alcohol a bit better now.
Matt had already opened the bottle for him, so Brem took a sip. Nothing happened. He took another, longer one, feeling giddy and on top of the world. He could do no wrong, tonight, he thought.
And then everything went black.
Brem dropped to the floor so suddenly and completely that he provoked a bit of chaos. Everyone kept asking how much he’d had to drink, and Matt, trying to deal with everything, kept saying that it couldn’t possibly have been more than one beer. Someone suggested calling an ambulance, and that was when Brem’s eyes opened.
“No ambulance,” he croaked out.
“What?” said Matt.
“No ambulance. I’m fine. We need to get me home.”
Matt lifted his eyebrows. “You’re not fine, you can’t even stand up.”
His teeth were chattering uncontrollably, as he forced himself to sit up. “I’ll be fine.” Everyone was staring at him. He managed a smile around his chattering teeth. “Look. I’m fine.”
People helped him out, and someone managed to call a cab, and Matt kind of shoved Brem into it, and getting to the dorm room itself was actually a blur, and Brem collapsed into his bed and pulled the duvet over him, shivering into it.
“What can I do?” Matt asked, pacing nervously.
“Nothing,” said Brem, struggling to pull his mobile out of his pocket. He forced his eyes open long enough to scroll through the contacts to “Theenie” and pressed “call.”
“What’s up?” she answered.
“Theenie,” he said, and he knew his voice sounded thick. “What are you doing?”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, immediately.
“Can you get away? Without Mum and Dad knowing?”
“I…Yeah, but how, Brem?”
“It’s ready. Lock onto it.”
“Tell me how.”
“Um…” Brem forced himself to think. “Matt,” he said. “Can you hand me that radio?”
“This?” asked Matt, in confusion, handing it across.
Brem fiddled with it, the effort costing him energy that he felt leaking out of him. “Theenie,” he said. “Frequency M5-theta-jundew-5, got that?”
“Yeah. I’m coming.”
“Give me ten minutes.” He hung up the phone and handed the radio to Matt. “Take this outside to the Yard, leave it, come inside, promise me?”
“I-”
“Leave it, then come back inside.”
“Got it,” Matt said.
Brem buried his head into his pillow, wondering if he was on the verge of regenerating and what Matt would think about that and, dammit, he’d always kind of liked this version of him, he really had-
“What did you do to him?” Athena’s voice demanded, and then she was next to his bed. “What did he do to you?”
He winced. “Nothing. Please keep your voice down, my head is killing me.”
Athena’s hands drifted across his forehead. “You’re burning up.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
“I had a drink-”
Athena stood up and shrieked at him, “You did what?”
Brem shuddered. “Oh. My. God. When I’m better, I’m going to kill you for that.”
“How could you do that?”
“Your voice is going right through my head.”
“You know what it does to you!”
“I was five, Theenie, I thought-Oh, God, my head is seriously killing me.”
He could feel Athena’s hands on his forehead again. “How much?” she asked, keeping her voice low. “Stay with me, Brem, tell me how much you drank.”
“Two sips, Theenie. It couldn’t have been more than two sips.”
“Alright. I’ll figure it out, okay? You’ll be fine. I’ll be right back.” He felt her kiss his forehead.
Athena turned to Matt. “You need to watch him for me, can you do that?”
“Watch him do what?” Matt followed Athena, as she raced outside.
“Just…Just sit with him, okay? I don’t want him to be alone, and I have to get to my father’s lab so I can get him something to…” She turned to him. “Just sit with him. He isn’t going to die or anything, he just…”
She had huge, luminous, brown eyes, glimmering in the moonlight on the Yard. “I’ll sit with him,” he promised. “But…how are you getting to your father’s lab? How did you get here so quick?”
“It’s…”
“Let me guess: Science.”
She grinned. “Yes. Kind of. Go back inside.”
She waited until she was sure Matt was inside before activating the teleport. It landed her back in her room, and she crept out and found the lab was suddenly the room next door. She kissed the TARDIS’s wall in gratitude and stared at the array of choices in front of her. Something to knock him out, she thought. He just had to let his system process the alcohol, but staying awake the way he was while it happened would torture him. So something to knock him out-she concocted a quick sleeping draught-and that should be enough, she thought. She hoped it was enough.
She pressed the teleport button, landed back on the Yard and rushed back to Brem’s room.
“How is he?” she asked.
Matt stood, startled. “But…I just got back!”
“Did you? Brem, where’s your sonic?” she asked.
“In my pocket,” he mumbled. “Why?”
“I want to take your temperature.” She pressed her mouth against his ear. “You’ve got both hearts going, right?” she murmured.
“Yes,” he said, wriggling as he pulled out the sonic and handed it to her.
She adjusted the setting and buzzed it over him and frowned.
“Well?” asked Matt.
“Higher than I’d like,” she said, reaching for her sleeping draught.
“No, what is that?”
“Have you got any water?” she asked.
“We…Yeah,” said Matt, dazedly, pulling a bottle of water out of the fridge.
“But I need a glass or something. Something to mix it in.”
He silently handed her a plastic cup.
Athena dumped draught and water into the cup and mixed it hastily with her finger, then turned to Brem.
“Sit up and drink this. All of it.”
He forced himself up and began drinking it. “Ugh, it tastes awful, what is it?”
“A sleeping draught,” she answered, watching him finish it. “I think.”
He looked at her. “You think?”
“It’s fine. You’ll be fine.”
Brem laid his head down, said after a moment, “Theenie?”
“Yeah?”
“The good news? It’s definitely a sleeping draught.” And then he started snoring.
Athena smiled and brushed another kiss over his forehead, then looked at Matt. “Sorry, sorry for all this excitement.”
“What’s the matter with him?”
“He’s…kind of allergic to alcohol.”
“Then why would he drink it?”
“I don’t think he thought his reaction would be this severe.”
“Yeah, I’d call that severe.”
Athena looked back at Brem, sleeping soundly now, hair tousled all over his head, the only thing visible under the duvet he was curled under. “He’ll be okay,” she said, turning back to Matt. “D’you mind if I just…hang around for the night? I don’t really want to leave him. Just in case…”
“Oh, I think I’d prefer that you hang around,” said Matt. “I don’t know how to make…sleeping…things.”
“It’s not hard,” said Athena, and sat on Matt’s bed.
Matt stood, wondering if he should point out she was on his bed, and whether he should sit on the bed with her. He sat on his desk chair instead and watched her. She was watching Brem.
“He’s lucky you were around.”
Athena smiled. “Not at all. I’m always around for him.”
“You’re a good sister.”
“He’s a good brother.” She curled her legs under her, turning to Matt. “When I was a little girl, he used to let us rope him into playing tea party with us. He hated it. But he always did it. Was it odd growing up by yourself?”
“I’ve never thought about it,” admitted Matt. “Lonely, I suppose. Don’t know who I would call if I had an allergic reaction. My parents, I guess.”
“I don’t know what I would have done without…Anyway,” she said, brightly. “Think there’s anything on the telly?”
And so he ended up watching really bad infomercials with Athena Tyler through the night. Athena kept making weird little comments about other products she knew doing impossible things, and he kept saying, “But, that’s impossible,” and she kept saying, “It’s science.” He ended up ordering them pizza, and by morning they were both on his bed eating pizza while Athena taught him this complicated card game she’d learned on Fizzlewitz, which he assumed was someplace in Germany, and Matt Mailloux had developed a fairly hopeless crush.
Brem opened his eyes around eight a.m., watched them playing cards for a second, Athena exclaiming, laughingly, “No! You can’t do that!” and said, “What are you doing?” It came out as a croak.
Athena looked at him and was kneeling by the bed in a second. “How do you feel?”
“A gazillion times better.”
“A technical term?”
“Yes. How do I look?”
She smiled. “The same.” She buzzed the screwdriver. “Right back to normal. Well done, you.”
“Well done, you. Did you stay here all night?”
She nodded. “I wanted to be here. Just in case.”
“Mum and Dad’ll miss you.”
“I’ll fix it,” she said, which he knew meant she’d play with the time on her way back.
Brem stretched and sat up. He felt much better. “I’m starving.”
“Good. No more drinking.”
“No more drinking,” he agreed, and she hugged him. “Thank you, Theenie.”
“No problem. That’s my job: saving you.”
“Yes, yes, I know.”
“I’ll walk you out,” said Matt, standing as Athena straightened.
“Thanks for waiting up with me,” Athena told him, as they walked to the Yard. “You made it fun.”
“No problem.” Matt hesitated by the door. “So your brother, he has this weird sense of humor.”
“Does he? I’ve never noticed that.”
“He says you like guys with tentacles.”
“Oh.” Athena smiled. “Yeah. I do.”
“But-”
“You’re a sweetheart, Matt, thanks.” She kissed his cheek and went skipping away.
Matt, frowning, went back to the room.
Brem was pulling fresh clothes out of his wardrobe. “I’m sorry about all this,” he said. “I didn’t expect it.”
“Brem,” said Matt. “Your sister is awesome.”
Brem looked at him. “Oh, this isn’t good.”
Next Chapter
Author - earlgreytea68
Rating - General
Characters - 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 is so sweet and betas on command when I hint that I need another chapter.
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.
I continue to be swamped at work--for those who have asked, I'm an attorney, a career I decidedly do not recommend--but I've been granted Sunday off, so I may be able to catch up on comments.
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
Chapter Five
Brem loved school. That probably should have been predictable, but the truth was he just bloody adored it. After the first full day of classes, he called the TARDIS and spent an hour reading his syllabi out loud to his father so he could be jealous of all the many things Brem was going to debate with everyone. By the time the week was over, Brem was wondering how he had ever thought that coming to Harvard might be a bad idea. It was the most brilliant idea ever, as he enthusiastically told his mother.
“I’m glad you’re having fun,” Athena said, when it was her turn to talk to him, “but Fort misses the hell out of you.”
“Does she?” asked Brem, concerned.
“I mean, I hardly miss you at all-”
“Welllllll, of course not,” drawled Brem.
“-but she’s a bit devastated. She’s been baking you cakes to send to you.”
“Good. I can’t wait.”
Athena dropped her voice. “I’m thinking maybe a teleport, though.”
“A teleport?”
“So she can whip over to see you easily.”
“Mum and Dad are never going to let us build a teleport between the TARDIS and here.”
“Which is why we’ve got to be clever and secretive about it.”
“It shouldn’t be that hard,” Brem decided.
“Not at all. If you set up a receiver for us, we could latch onto it wherever we are and project ourselves to it.”
“Right. Easy enough. I’ll get started on it tonight.”
Brem walked down to the Square and bought a radio that he then brought back to the dorm room, and Matt found him later, sitting on his bed, sonic screwdriver between his teeth, as he put the finishing touches on his teleport receiver.
“What are you up to?” Matt asked.
Brem took the screwdriver out of his mouth and waved his hand around. “More…science.”
“Ah.” Matt sat on his bed and looked across at Brem.
Brem looked back at him. “What?” he asked, hoping he wasn’t going to get an awkward question about the sonic screwdriver.
Matt grinned. “Want to go to a party?”
“A party? Where?”
“I ran into some guys who live off-campus, and got us invited to a party at their apartment. Not bad, huh?”
“I guess not,” said Brem, who wasn’t sure why he was supposed to be impressed by this.
“So, wanna go?”
Why not? thought Brem. It was part of his human experience he was supposed to be having. “Sure.”
So it was that he and Matt, shortly after eleven, walked through the mild night across Harvard Yard and into the outlying neighborhood. It was pretty easy to find the apartment in question, as there was loud music and a profusion of people pouring it out, gathered tightly on the balcony. Brem didn’t see why the invitation had been such a big deal. It looked as if everyone in the universe had been invited. And, at that thought, Brem hoped he didn’t run into Owtvfa aliens.
They walked right into the apartment (and once again Brem wondered what the point of the invitation had been). Matt, without asking him, retrieved him a beer and handed it to him. Brem frowned, because he had no intention of drinking. Alcohol had disastrous effects on him. But he took the beer to have something to hold.
There was a knot of students next to them, and they were laughing uproariously about something, and Matt was trying to insert himself into the conversation, to see what the topic was. Brem, eyes searching the room for Owtvfa aliens, heard dimly something about “twenty-six concentrations.” Brem had inherited his father’s very fair skin, and he could feel every bit of the blush now. He wanted to sink through the floor in embarrassment. Especially when Matt exclaimed, “Oh! Twenty-six concentrations! I know that freshman! That’s my roommate! Brem! Brem!”
Brem wished he could pretend not to hear the shouting but that was attracting more attention so he turned to Matt and smiled winningly.
“Brem! Everyone’s talking about your twenty-six concentrations!”
“Yes,” said Brem. “Isn’t that brilliant.”
“He’s from London,” Matt confided to the guys he was talking to.
“Twenty-six concentrations?” asked one of the guys, sounding impressed. “What would possess you?”
“Tell them about your dry sense of humor,” said Matt.
“You have a dry sense of humor?” said the guy.
“Very dry,” affirmed Brem.
The guy smiled and held out his hand. “I’m Brian Keough.”
“Brem Tyler,” said Brem, shaking his hand.
“Brem Tyler from London who wants to do twenty-six concentrations.”
“Why is twenty-six so odd?” asked Brem. “It’s just healthy curiosity. I have an opinion about things.”
“About everything, apparently,” said Brian.
“Wellllllll, most things.”
“You know what’s interesting?” asked Brian.
“What?”
“Do you write?”
Brem blinked in surprise. “Do I what?”
“I’m editor-in-chief of the Crimson, and we’d had this thought about doing a column on the freshman perspective, but we had no idea how to find a freshman to write it. And now you show up with an opinion about everything and twenty-six concentrations, and, Brem Tyler, if you can write, you just might have a column in the Crimson.”
“I can write,” said Brem.
“Stop by the Crimson on Monday. Can you do that? What time works for you?”
“I-Oh, damn. Matt.” He pulled Matt out of a conversation with a girl.
“What?” demanded Matt, crossly.
“Matt, what’s my class schedule on Monday?”
Brian looked amused. “What’s this, then?”
Matt rolled his eyes. “He’s bad with schedules. I don’t know, you could probably squeeze something in at two o’clock, I think.”
“Two,” said Brem to Brian. “Does two work?”
“It’s perfect. Bring writing samples.”
Brem watched Brian move off to mingle with the next group. Writing samples? He didn’t really have writing samples. Save for his journal and his abandoned application essays. But it didn’t matter. He’d figure something out and he’d have a column, all to his own, to write about whatever he wanted. It sounded perfect.
Brem looked at his beer. The last time he’d had alcohol he’d been five years old. Surely he could handle alcohol a bit better now.
Matt had already opened the bottle for him, so Brem took a sip. Nothing happened. He took another, longer one, feeling giddy and on top of the world. He could do no wrong, tonight, he thought.
And then everything went black.
Brem dropped to the floor so suddenly and completely that he provoked a bit of chaos. Everyone kept asking how much he’d had to drink, and Matt, trying to deal with everything, kept saying that it couldn’t possibly have been more than one beer. Someone suggested calling an ambulance, and that was when Brem’s eyes opened.
“No ambulance,” he croaked out.
“What?” said Matt.
“No ambulance. I’m fine. We need to get me home.”
Matt lifted his eyebrows. “You’re not fine, you can’t even stand up.”
His teeth were chattering uncontrollably, as he forced himself to sit up. “I’ll be fine.” Everyone was staring at him. He managed a smile around his chattering teeth. “Look. I’m fine.”
People helped him out, and someone managed to call a cab, and Matt kind of shoved Brem into it, and getting to the dorm room itself was actually a blur, and Brem collapsed into his bed and pulled the duvet over him, shivering into it.
“What can I do?” Matt asked, pacing nervously.
“Nothing,” said Brem, struggling to pull his mobile out of his pocket. He forced his eyes open long enough to scroll through the contacts to “Theenie” and pressed “call.”
“What’s up?” she answered.
“Theenie,” he said, and he knew his voice sounded thick. “What are you doing?”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, immediately.
“Can you get away? Without Mum and Dad knowing?”
“I…Yeah, but how, Brem?”
“It’s ready. Lock onto it.”
“Tell me how.”
“Um…” Brem forced himself to think. “Matt,” he said. “Can you hand me that radio?”
“This?” asked Matt, in confusion, handing it across.
Brem fiddled with it, the effort costing him energy that he felt leaking out of him. “Theenie,” he said. “Frequency M5-theta-jundew-5, got that?”
“Yeah. I’m coming.”
“Give me ten minutes.” He hung up the phone and handed the radio to Matt. “Take this outside to the Yard, leave it, come inside, promise me?”
“I-”
“Leave it, then come back inside.”
“Got it,” Matt said.
Brem buried his head into his pillow, wondering if he was on the verge of regenerating and what Matt would think about that and, dammit, he’d always kind of liked this version of him, he really had-
“What did you do to him?” Athena’s voice demanded, and then she was next to his bed. “What did he do to you?”
He winced. “Nothing. Please keep your voice down, my head is killing me.”
Athena’s hands drifted across his forehead. “You’re burning up.”
“I know.”
“What happened?”
“I had a drink-”
Athena stood up and shrieked at him, “You did what?”
Brem shuddered. “Oh. My. God. When I’m better, I’m going to kill you for that.”
“How could you do that?”
“Your voice is going right through my head.”
“You know what it does to you!”
“I was five, Theenie, I thought-Oh, God, my head is seriously killing me.”
He could feel Athena’s hands on his forehead again. “How much?” she asked, keeping her voice low. “Stay with me, Brem, tell me how much you drank.”
“Two sips, Theenie. It couldn’t have been more than two sips.”
“Alright. I’ll figure it out, okay? You’ll be fine. I’ll be right back.” He felt her kiss his forehead.
Athena turned to Matt. “You need to watch him for me, can you do that?”
“Watch him do what?” Matt followed Athena, as she raced outside.
“Just…Just sit with him, okay? I don’t want him to be alone, and I have to get to my father’s lab so I can get him something to…” She turned to him. “Just sit with him. He isn’t going to die or anything, he just…”
She had huge, luminous, brown eyes, glimmering in the moonlight on the Yard. “I’ll sit with him,” he promised. “But…how are you getting to your father’s lab? How did you get here so quick?”
“It’s…”
“Let me guess: Science.”
She grinned. “Yes. Kind of. Go back inside.”
She waited until she was sure Matt was inside before activating the teleport. It landed her back in her room, and she crept out and found the lab was suddenly the room next door. She kissed the TARDIS’s wall in gratitude and stared at the array of choices in front of her. Something to knock him out, she thought. He just had to let his system process the alcohol, but staying awake the way he was while it happened would torture him. So something to knock him out-she concocted a quick sleeping draught-and that should be enough, she thought. She hoped it was enough.
She pressed the teleport button, landed back on the Yard and rushed back to Brem’s room.
“How is he?” she asked.
Matt stood, startled. “But…I just got back!”
“Did you? Brem, where’s your sonic?” she asked.
“In my pocket,” he mumbled. “Why?”
“I want to take your temperature.” She pressed her mouth against his ear. “You’ve got both hearts going, right?” she murmured.
“Yes,” he said, wriggling as he pulled out the sonic and handed it to her.
She adjusted the setting and buzzed it over him and frowned.
“Well?” asked Matt.
“Higher than I’d like,” she said, reaching for her sleeping draught.
“No, what is that?”
“Have you got any water?” she asked.
“We…Yeah,” said Matt, dazedly, pulling a bottle of water out of the fridge.
“But I need a glass or something. Something to mix it in.”
He silently handed her a plastic cup.
Athena dumped draught and water into the cup and mixed it hastily with her finger, then turned to Brem.
“Sit up and drink this. All of it.”
He forced himself up and began drinking it. “Ugh, it tastes awful, what is it?”
“A sleeping draught,” she answered, watching him finish it. “I think.”
He looked at her. “You think?”
“It’s fine. You’ll be fine.”
Brem laid his head down, said after a moment, “Theenie?”
“Yeah?”
“The good news? It’s definitely a sleeping draught.” And then he started snoring.
Athena smiled and brushed another kiss over his forehead, then looked at Matt. “Sorry, sorry for all this excitement.”
“What’s the matter with him?”
“He’s…kind of allergic to alcohol.”
“Then why would he drink it?”
“I don’t think he thought his reaction would be this severe.”
“Yeah, I’d call that severe.”
Athena looked back at Brem, sleeping soundly now, hair tousled all over his head, the only thing visible under the duvet he was curled under. “He’ll be okay,” she said, turning back to Matt. “D’you mind if I just…hang around for the night? I don’t really want to leave him. Just in case…”
“Oh, I think I’d prefer that you hang around,” said Matt. “I don’t know how to make…sleeping…things.”
“It’s not hard,” said Athena, and sat on Matt’s bed.
Matt stood, wondering if he should point out she was on his bed, and whether he should sit on the bed with her. He sat on his desk chair instead and watched her. She was watching Brem.
“He’s lucky you were around.”
Athena smiled. “Not at all. I’m always around for him.”
“You’re a good sister.”
“He’s a good brother.” She curled her legs under her, turning to Matt. “When I was a little girl, he used to let us rope him into playing tea party with us. He hated it. But he always did it. Was it odd growing up by yourself?”
“I’ve never thought about it,” admitted Matt. “Lonely, I suppose. Don’t know who I would call if I had an allergic reaction. My parents, I guess.”
“I don’t know what I would have done without…Anyway,” she said, brightly. “Think there’s anything on the telly?”
And so he ended up watching really bad infomercials with Athena Tyler through the night. Athena kept making weird little comments about other products she knew doing impossible things, and he kept saying, “But, that’s impossible,” and she kept saying, “It’s science.” He ended up ordering them pizza, and by morning they were both on his bed eating pizza while Athena taught him this complicated card game she’d learned on Fizzlewitz, which he assumed was someplace in Germany, and Matt Mailloux had developed a fairly hopeless crush.
Brem opened his eyes around eight a.m., watched them playing cards for a second, Athena exclaiming, laughingly, “No! You can’t do that!” and said, “What are you doing?” It came out as a croak.
Athena looked at him and was kneeling by the bed in a second. “How do you feel?”
“A gazillion times better.”
“A technical term?”
“Yes. How do I look?”
She smiled. “The same.” She buzzed the screwdriver. “Right back to normal. Well done, you.”
“Well done, you. Did you stay here all night?”
She nodded. “I wanted to be here. Just in case.”
“Mum and Dad’ll miss you.”
“I’ll fix it,” she said, which he knew meant she’d play with the time on her way back.
Brem stretched and sat up. He felt much better. “I’m starving.”
“Good. No more drinking.”
“No more drinking,” he agreed, and she hugged him. “Thank you, Theenie.”
“No problem. That’s my job: saving you.”
“Yes, yes, I know.”
“I’ll walk you out,” said Matt, standing as Athena straightened.
“Thanks for waiting up with me,” Athena told him, as they walked to the Yard. “You made it fun.”
“No problem.” Matt hesitated by the door. “So your brother, he has this weird sense of humor.”
“Does he? I’ve never noticed that.”
“He says you like guys with tentacles.”
“Oh.” Athena smiled. “Yeah. I do.”
“But-”
“You’re a sweetheart, Matt, thanks.” She kissed his cheek and went skipping away.
Matt, frowning, went back to the room.
Brem was pulling fresh clothes out of his wardrobe. “I’m sorry about all this,” he said. “I didn’t expect it.”
“Brem,” said Matt. “Your sister is awesome.”
Brem looked at him. “Oh, this isn’t good.”
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