1Arthur and I never went out again like we did the first day I saw him. In fact I hardly saw him at all. We worked in two separate departments putting our schedules completely out of sync. I would occasionally see him passing by in the hallway on his way to his next lecture or to make copies of a paper and I would stop to say hi to him. We only ever exchanged a few brief words- and a few times I tried to ask him to lunch again- but then he would say that he was either late or busy and would disappear around a corner or into a crowd of people, eyes downcast to the floor.

I felt horrible, one hundred and ten percent horrible. I thought I had finally gotten Arthur back from the clutches of time and death itself and I felt like we would become fast friends like before and then fall in love like we were supposed to in college, but so far my plans weren't working so well. That depressed me. Despite being in the greatest city in the world, working in one of its most prestigious schools, being the inventor of the very first time machine and having millions of dollars now sitting in my bank accounts because of it I still moped and sulked. It was needless to say I confused a lot of people.

Still I taught and tried my best to seem cheerful to my students. They were kind of depending on me to teach them everything they needed to know about being an astrophysicist so they could get jobs and lead long successful lives. I couldn't let them down. So I taught them the formulas, the chemicals, the different studies and scientists, but somehow it always lead back to the same question. "How did you build your time machine?" I was asked that question at least ten times every day by various people. I would always smile and laugh saying that it was a secret. The next leading question was "Why did you build your time machine?" to which I also answered that it was a secret. I was honestly getting sick of answering a question that I would never really give the true answer to.

"Alright, so say you want to figure out the amount of propulsion you need to get an aircraft of let's say… three tons off the ground you'd use this formula…" I explained as I grabbed a piece of chalk off the ledge of chalkboard, writing down the formula I knew by heart. It had been a month since I had started teaching at Columbia. Despite my depression over Arthur I was actually enjoying teaching after all it was something I've wanted to try for a while. I had already been confessed love to by five female students and even another teacher to which I of course turned down with the first reason being I was their teacher (and that would totally not be cool) and second reason that in actuality I was gay.

"Mr. Jones?" I heard from one of the higher up rows of the lecture seats. I turned my head to see one of the students, Zach was his name if I remembered correctly, raising his hand eagerly. Now he… he was the worst with the questions.

I repressed a loud sigh, "Yeah? What is it, Zach?"

"I know you keep saying it's a secret and all," here it came. "But what exactly is time like? Have you traveled through it before? Is it like some kind of interstellar vortex?" of course.

I pressed my lips together, putting my chalk back down on the ledge with more force than was really necessary. A few front row students flinched, "Okay, I've been putting up with it, but I'm getting a little tired of it now. Guys, I really can't explain time. Based on what the government's told me I can't. All I can say is that… time is like a piece of movie film. It's just a bunch of pictures put together and moving at a fast pace so it looks smooth. That's pretty much it." Everyone was quiet and kind of just looked at each other, a few people shifted in their seats.

I sighed again, moving to my desk at the center of the platform before flopping down into my chair; the wheels shifting a bit with my weight. "Okay…. I don't mean to sound annoyed or anything, but there really is nothing I can tell you about how it works. I just want to clear that up so everyone will stop asking." It was silent again for a few moments before Zach raised his hand again; a little less eagerly this time around. "Yes… Zach?" I said, more pleasantly this time.

"If you can't tell us how can you tell us why?" And then all eyes were on me. All fifty three of my students were all staring down at me from their seats in the lecture hall.

I scratched the back of my neck, "Well… at first I just wanted to see if I could, but then…" I trailed off somehow getting lost in my memories as I tended to do. "There was this… accide-!" I nearly jumped out of my chair when the shrill sound of the bell pulled me out of my thoughts. Class was over. "I uh… A-alright guys read chapter six in your text books for tomorrow and answer all the questions on page 221 and please don't ask me about the machine again tomorrow." All the kids packed up their books and laptops, chatter breaking out like wildfire, while they all shuffled through the one exit door and were gone for the afternoon.

I leaned back in my chair, finally getting to kick my feet up on its surface and letting out that long frustrated sigh I've been holding back. I wasn't sure how much of this I could handle. I usually wasn't one to get so stressed and frustrated so easily, but with what had been happening with Arthur I just really felt like crap. Quite frankly I didn't even feel like moving from my chair. "Interesting lecture…" A voice floated down from the top of the stairs, a voice I knew all too well. Sure enough when I looked to the stairs Arthur was up there standing with his arms folded over his chest and his one hip (which were rather prominent might I add) popped out slightly to the side.

"Don't tell me you heard that…" I said slightly out of humor and slightly out of nervousness that maybe he was piecing things together (which was also just my paranoia talking).

"Just that last bit really." He replied as he began making his way down the stairs; his hips swishing ever so slightly from side to side as he moved. He always had such a swagger when he walked and it still drove me crazy even after so many years. "I figure that the students are still buzzing around you like insects?" An amused smile played on those perfect lips of his.

"Nothing I'm not used to already. Not that I don't love attention, but they're really starting to get to me." I sighed softly; smiling as well as I moved my feet down from the top of my desk.

"I'm surprised," He replied, finally making it down the many stairs and sashaying his way over to my desk. "You were always the attention grabber back in high school. Always pulling some kind of dangerous and or stupid stunt just so people would know your name."

"The world loves a bit of irony. Now I wish I could just have one hour where someone didn't ask me about the time machine." I laughed a bit and Arthur did as well.

"So other than that how have you been fairing? Not getting horribly lost on campus are you?" He asked as he came up and leaned on my desk a little.

"I've gotten lost a few times- it is a big campus after all- but I eventually find my way back to something familiar." I replied; watching as Arthur picked a pencil up from my desk and started mindlessly fiddling with it.

"Well that's good to hear. But no need to feel worried about it; all the rest of us here got lost as well during the first few weeks.

It was quiet again. I watched Arthur carefully as he fiddled with the pencil; his green eyes observing it as if it had been the most interesting thing he ever saw. I knew this act; I had seen him do it a million times before. He became absorbed in the most ordinary thing just because he wanted to say something, but didn't know how to go about saying it. "… Is something up? You seem kinda out of it." I asked, meaning to sound polite for asking.

Arthur shrugged his shoulders a little, "I suppose not," He said. "Why do I really seem out of it?"

I also shrugged my shoulders, "Not really," I replied. "You just look tried is all." I could see the dark spots circling the underside of his eyes. They weren't really noticeable, but I could definitely see them. Remember in the other time stream I had dated this man and new his every quirk and secret.

He breathed a soft sigh out of his nose, "… I haven't been sleeping very well as of late. I keep having this dream… well more so nightmare. I just can't seem to get it out of my mind." He said, continuing to fiddle with the pencil.

"Nightmare?" I echoed. "What about?" Now was my chance to come in like a knight on a white horse; reliving him of his troubles and letting him vent. Not only was this a good opportunity to lure him back to me, but I really was concerned about him. I knew how he got frustrated easily and let the littlest things grow bigger and bigger into horrible monsters that made it hard for him to sleep.

"I don't want to bore you with the details. It's probably nothing…" Being stubborn and strong as ever. He always was the most difficult person to get to talk about their feelings.

"Don't bottle it up, y'know that's bad for you," He seemed to perk up slightly at the saying I always used to use whenever he wouldn't talk; staring at me with confusion swirling around in his green eyes. "… Something wrong…?" I asked slightly nervously.

"N-no… I just… got the strangest sense of déjà vu…" He said softly, placing the pencil down on the desk and leaving the wooden graphite filled object alone.

"Oh…" I replied. Honestly that worried me a little when he looked at me like that. I knew I had retained memories of the time stream where we had been in love, but that was only because I was the one who traveled in time. As far as I knew no one else should have been even the slightest bit suspicious of the altered time stream. "Well I guess it happens sometimes." I laughed to help shake off some of the tension that had suddenly settled between us. "So anyway, about this nightmare, do you wanna talk about it? I mean you don't have to, but I'm all ears if you do. I always find that talking about a problem helps me feel better about it." Hypocrite me. I had my biggest problem looming over my head and yet I hadn't told a single soul about it. I hadn't even told my brother Matthew since his memories of the old time stream were also gone now.

"Well…" He started, clearly still unsure if whether or not he should be talking about this with me. "It's always snowing… and I'm always with someone else, but their face is kind of hazy. We're walking in a place that I know I've never been to before, but it seems strangely familiar. I'm crossing the street and I this horrible feeling that I've forgotten something... and I turn around and..." I found myself holding my breath, my insides clenching, and my heart racing as I listened to Arthur's horribly familiar dream.

"Pain... I'm in this terrible amount of pain. I can't breathe... I can't think... All these shadows start gathering around me and all I can hear are muffled screams and... sirens. The person I was with is standing over me, but his face is still fuzzy. He's shouting something to me, but I can't hear him... I suddenly feel so scared and so cold and I feel like the life is draining from me..." I knew what this was; I knew all too well what this was. I felt my hands trembling and my eyes stinging. I wanted to cry so badly, but I remained resolute and tried my best to continuing listening to his dream.

"I look back up at the man's face and... I feel better, better that he's here with me. All I want to do is hold him and tell him everything will be alright, but... I can't. Then everything fades away to darkness and... I wake up." I nearly cried. I could feel my eyes still stinging, but the tears wouldn't come. I just stared up at Arthur in complete disbelief of what he was saying. I knew damn well what the nightmare was about because I had been on that same street so many times before night after night. He shouldn't have had memories from that time stream, but... somehow he did. They were still there, but he just didn't realize they were memories and not part of a dream. They had somehow transcended through the very vortex of time itself and came back to him. I was both amazed and horrified at the same time. Just to hear him say what his last thoughts were before he died... that was enough to make me collapse on my knees and sob.

I had to so something. I had to say something. He was staring at me again with a nervous look on his face like maybe what he said we disturbing to me (which it was, but not for the reason he was thinking of). "A-Arthur I-!" I never got to finish my sentence.

"Ah! Arthur there you are!" Both of our heads whipped around to see Francis standing at the top of the stairs near the door. "What are you doing, Gregory has been looking everywhere for you."

"Oh bullocks, I must have lost track of time. Sorry to leave so suddenly, Alfred, but I really must get going." And Arthur was gone. He rushed up the stairs and was out the door before I had a chance to say anything else.

Francis made his way down the stairs; hands shoved in the pockets of his khaki pants. "That's an awful shame," He said. "It seemed as though you too were really getting along."

I sighed, leaning back in my seat and trying to calm myself down from my encounter with Arthur, "Well... when a student needs you a student needs you I guess..."

Francis gazed over at me and arched one pale blonde brow, "Student? Gregory isn't a student." He said as if that was common knowledge around here.

"... Then who's Gregory?" I asked.

"Arthur's boyfriend." I could have died.