The Friendship of Prufrock
Characters: Daniel, Charlie
Summary: Daniel's life rarely involved friendship. And he'd never expect to find it in one of his students. Written for the New Friend challenge on charliepacefic.
Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me. And the poems that I had a little too much fun referencing belong to T.S. Eliot
Daniel Faraday never enjoyed teaching but it was part of the job requirement at Oxford and meeting them was the only way to continue funding his experiments. So he always tried to get the jobs teaching higher level classes so as not to get too bored and because the students where less needy, therefore restricting the amount of interacting he had to do with them. But this year he had been forced to teach an introductory course and there was no escaping it.
It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be though, the class had over fifty students so the entire time was spent in lectures with no class discussions. He came to lose himself in them, often continuing on after the class had ended in the endless dialogue with himself. It was often during these times that he would have a revelation about the experiments with electromagnetism he was doing. So he tried to keep the topics focused on that, even though it had nothing to do with the curriculum.
At the end of one particular class he was scribbling some new equations that he had just thought of on the backboard when he was suddenly interrupted from his thoughts.
"Professor Faraday?" said a voice from behind him "Could I talk to you about the final?"
Daniel whirled around and was surprised, as usual, to find a student in the room with him. This particular student looked younger than normal, with his short frame, baby face and messy blond hair. But maybe he just wasn't used to looking at his underclassmen, because his back was always turned to the blackboard when he lectured.
"Go on" he ordered, eyeing him apprehensively.
"Well, I'm worried about the test" he said nervously playing with the bangles on his wrist "I've been having some trouble understanding the material and I was wondering if you could give me some extra help?"
It was another tutor request. He had made it perfectly clear at the beginning of the semester that he didn't do that, so why did they keep coming?
"I don't do that" he muttered turning back to his work, hoping he would just go away "Try talking to Professor Donavon."
"I already did, he said he was already swamped with his students and half of yours. He, uh, also said that if you don't start doing your job he's going to report you to the department head"
Daniel sat down at his desk now, muttering to himself about backstabbing co-workers and whiny students. He had to find some way to get rid of this kid!
"I'm sure you're doing just fine on your own." He said finally "What did you get on you're midterm?"
"I failed" he said bluntly looking him directly in the eye for the first time. It was making him nervous. He broke it quickly and sighed realizing that this was not going to be a quick conversation.
"Do you have it with you?" he asked "Maybe than I'll be able to see what the problem is" It would have been easier to just ask him what he had problems with but he just wasn't fond of talking. Luckily the student did have it in his bag and handed it over to him. Upon scanning the test he could tell that he had done fairly well on theory questions but with the equations everything just fell apart.
"Some of these are just basic algebra" he said pointing at them for him to see "How could you have gotten them wrong?"
That was obviously the wrong thing to say because instantly the kids face started to crumple. "I'm really bad at math" he said in a slightly high pitched voice "The secondary school I went to was really horrible. It only offered two years of it and the teachers didn't even understand it and I had no time to study because my dad always made me help out at his butcher…"
It looked like he was going to cry. Dan sat frozen, unsure what to do. He had no experience in these situations. Awkwardly he reached over and patted his arm. "Well, physics probably isn't the best subject for you, theirs a lot of math involved"
"I know that, I'm here to study music. But I have to take a science class as part of the university core requirement."
Dan sighed, exasperated. "So you should take biology. There's very little math involved"
"I should have, but it's too late now. I can't fail this class or I'll lose my scholarship. Could you please help me?"
"Wh-what did you say your name was?" Dan finally asked after a long pause, nervously running his hand through his long hair.
"Charlie Pace"
"Okay Mr. Pace? Meet me in my office tomorrow at noon" Dan knew he would regret this later but right now he just wanted to get back to work and agreeing would be the only way to get rid of him at the moment.
When Charlie came by the next day he was surprised to see him and momentarily wondered what he was doing there before he remembered who he was. He was in the middle of one of his experiments that Oxford frowned upon so he was hesitant to let him in but he didn't have much choice in the matter.
"You can, uh, sit here" he said gesturing to an old armchair "I just need to finish something, than we can work on the equations"
After a few minutes he turned around and found him holding his albino lab rat. "She's sweet" he said stroking her gently "What's her name?"
"She doesn't have one. You could name her if you want" Idiot. What a stupid thing to ask someone you don't know. He wasn't even supposed to name his lab rats or risk getting too attached.
But at those words a grin began to spread across his face. "How about Eloise?"
"That's fine" He wanted to ask him where the name came from, since he seemed think of it so quickly. But he couldn't find the words to. Instead he sat down began explaining one of the equations that he needed to know for the final.
Doing physics was easier than dealing with people.
When Charlie realized that Dan didn't always remember to feed Eloise he started coming in every day to do so. Not sure how to react to this, Daniel tried to just do his work and pretend he wasn't there. But Charlie would than come over and ask him about what he was doing and he actually seemed interested in his answers. He was probably the first person not to laugh at his time travel theories. He had only agreed to tutor him for an hour a week but it didn't work out that way. Because he wasn't sure how or when it happened but at some point Charlie became his lab assistant, sometimes spending several hours a day working with him. And when they were done he always found a way to get him to go over the coursework with him.
Despite himself Dan found himself enjoying Charlie's presence. Daniel always did his best to avoid speech because what he had to say was always quiet and meaningless and he could never look people in the eye, an essential part of social interaction. But here he never had to talk much because Charlie did all of it for him. He would tell him about how his father wanted him to be a butcher or how only reason he got into Oxford was because they wanted more students from low income, working class families to make the college more diverse. Or he'd sing him the songs he'd recently written and tell him stories of the strange encounters he'd have while busking on the streets of London.
Dan enjoyed his company immensely but he simply did not know how to presume with this…friendship. Was it a friendship? Did he dare call this a friendship? He couldn't remember the last time he had one. But he was Daniel Faraday the physicist, he wasn't supposed to have friends. He never needed them. He had his work. And that was all he had ever needed.
And yet as he became more and more used to Charlie's company he was forced to come to terms with the truth, that his role as a physicist and his work was such a deliberate disguise. An excuse to avoid what scared him. But without his life had become barren and empty as the sea.
Than Desmond came and suddenly his research was not as far fetched as he had previously believed it to be. The day after his visit Daniel was working more furiously than ever before. Everything was now spread out in the sky, he just had to grasp it and put it together in the right way.
"Wow, you're even more caught in with your work than normal" said a familiar voice. Dan turned around from the blackboard and saw Charlie sitting in the armchair. How long had he been there?
"Oh, Charlie. Hi. You'll never believe what happened yesterday!"
"You didn't wear a tie!"
"Very amusing. Actually I met someone who was unstuck in time. Can you believe it? I think this is going to be the key to my research and I'm finally going to accomplish something"
"Wow…. that's, uh, great Dan"
Wait, when had Charlie started calling him that? He must have given him permission to at some point but he couldn't remember doing so. But lately it seemed as though a yellow fog was slowly starting to cloud his memories, turning them into a heap of broken images. He supposed that it was caused by the growing pressures of his work.
"Dan" Charlie suddenly said sharply, interrupting him from his thoughts "Where's Eloise?"
"Oh, she had an, uh, aneurism…her brain was bleeding" Dan said feeling rather guilty "One of my experiments…went a bit wrong. And well… she died?"
Charlie looked absolutely crestfallen. He had grown attached to her and he was so open with his emotions in a way that was unimaginable to Dan. But Charlie seemed to behave as the wind behaved—always suspended in time, living for the moment. He would be a perfect candidate for time travel. Not like Daniel. How could he expect to travel in time when he couldn't even make peace with the time he's in?
"It's okay" Charlie said at last "I know it was an accident. Listen Dan, the reason I came in was to thank you for helping me pass your class. I know you don't really enjoy doing that sort of thing, but you've been amazing."
"No, it's been-it's been my pleasure"
"Well the thing is" Charlie said looking rather sad "I didn't pass some of my other classes… I don't really belong in this world of academia and I certainly can't pay for it. So I'm dropping out."
"Well… what are you going to do than?" he wanted to tell him not to, that he'd tutor him in all his classes if he just stays and keeps him company. But it's always been impossible for him to say what he how he feels or what he means.
"My brothers starting a band. He wants me to play bass and write the songs. I'm moving into his flat. Here's the phone number" he said handing him a piece of paper "I want us to keep in touch. You've been such a great friend to me. The times I've spent in here have been the best part of Oxford."
With that Charlie embraced him in a hug that Daniel returned awkwardly.
"I'll see you around okay. Remember to call me, when you have the spare time" And with that he was gone.
He had been the one normal thing in his life, but like all good things it had ended. He had wanted so much to have friendship but between the idea and the reality it had fallen apart. Because he was not supposed to have friends and when you disturb the rules of the universe it quickly course corrects. It shouldn't matter to him anyway, because when it comes down to it, we all live and die alone.
And he really was going to call him, just not at the moment. He was too busy with his work. There will be time later. It's not like he'll forget.
Do I dare
Disturb the universe
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute would reverse
And would it have been worth it, after all
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