A/N I meant to get this up earlier today, but I ended up messing with it for the better part of way too long. :P

TIC Extra #11

Timeline: The scene is set during the end of B3, towards the end of the school year and just before Paul and Cassie's wedding.

Characters: Brady, Sims (minor Jake, Chancy, Collin, Nikki)

Rating: T

Word Count: 2435

Warnings: Boobs. Some language, Mel's stereotypical TIC rambling, some Embry bashing. And…boobs.


Brady Jennings liked to consider himself a cool customer with the ladies. What he was really good at was sitting back and playing it low key, watching the hottest chicks out of the corner of his eye, and waiting for them come to him. Definitely a cool customer.

That's what he considered himself, anyway, but Brady had the feeling that his best friend disagreed with this theory. Collin kept telling Brady he'd be a lot cooler customer if one of these days the ladies actually did come to him. Until then Collin was pretty sure that Brady was just the grumpy, scary guy that made the hottest chicks nervous when he stared, making them scoot on down the line to where Collin was waiting to gather them all up and stick them in his back pocket. Or side pocket. Or straight down the front of his pants if the ladies in question were willing.

Of course Collin appreciated it, but if Brady ever wanted to catch a girl instead of just herding them together for Collin, maybe he should stop sitting back and staring and actually talk to one of them. And since Brady spent the most time staring at Nikki Connweller—a girl less frightened of him than most—then maybe Brady should probably start with talking to her.

Easier said than done.

Brady had tried, he really had. He'd grunted at Nikki when passing her in the halls. He'd told her he liked the Spongebob Squarepants patch she'd sewn onto her ratty old book bag she always carried. And every morning he hesitated by Nikki's locker, where she always stood with her two best friends, and he'd say her name. Yep. That's how far he had gotten. He was now saying her name. As he sat munching on his lunch at a picnic table with two girls that he couldn't and wouldn't stare at, Brady was forced to admit that maybe he wasn't as cool as he thought he was.

This entire school year, Brady had eaten his lunch outside, rain or shine, because that's what Sims did. She had her table, and she would lounge on top of her table, and she would talk to her friend Chancy on her table, the redhead that always smelled like candy and sex and Seth Clearwater. Sims had used to smell like candy and sex and Embry Call. Now she smelled like candy and she-wolf and Packmate, and only of Embry when the dickmunch forgot that he was still punishing her for being braver and better than Embry fucking Call had ever deserved.

Not that Brady was allowed an opinion or anything…But let's just say that Brady was allowed an opinion, and if he was, he might be inclined to mention that he was sick and tired of their newest she-wolf still having to clean up after Embry Call's fuckups. Frankly it pissed him the fuck off.

If Embry had been able to keep his shit together enough to take care of his own business, maybe she wouldn't have needed to fight so hard to protect him. If Embry had been able to keep his shit together enough to put his dick in a wrapper, maybe she wouldn't have been so hopped up on estrogen from the morning after pill, and she wouldn't have gone bat shit crazy and hurt herself when fighting to protect him from them. If Embry had been able to keep his shit together enough, maybe Sims wouldn't have had to be shipped out of the rez and into Calgary's jaws. If Embry had been able to keep his shit together enough, maybe Embry wouldn't have forgotten to switch the patrol routes the day Neel nearly killed Seth, and she wouldn't have had to phase to save their Beta in the first place.

The way Brady saw it, Emb could throw as many temper tantrums and pity parties as he wanted to about the whole thing, but no, Sims hadn't asked his opinion before phasing because she wasn't Embry's imprint, she was Jake's. That decision had been between them.

But Brady was on the bottom rung of the Pack ladder, and he didn't get to have an opinion. So he kept his mouth shut and he stuck close to her side, watching her back because that's what they did for each other now. And Brady hadn't exactly called dibs, but he was going to be the first one to put a fist in Emb's mouth when the asshole dumped her, because it was coming. She was the only one who didn't know it was coming, and it was going to blindside her no matter how many hints the older wolf kept throwing in her face.

Hell, maybe Brady was wrong. What did he know about any of that relationship crap? Brady had never even had a real girlfriend, so he wasn't going to say anything and make more trouble for either of them. Not for her, because she mattered, and not for Embry because Brady had spoken up once, and Emb had lost his fucking mind afterwards. So instead Brady would listen to Sims and Chancy talk about boring girl shit and he'd eat his lunch and keep his mouth shut. Maybe steal some lollipops from both girls' book bags, and he would use his strategic positioning from slightly behind his Alpha's imprint to crane his head slightly and stare at Nikki Connweller.

"You're not very subtle, you know."

Mid head crane, Brady glanced at Sims, where she lay flopped out on the top of the table in front of him. His lunch tray was wedged against her hip, because Chancy was on her belly on Sims' other side, the red head yawning tiredly as she much more openly stared at Jake and Collin playing basketball.

Chancy was tired all the time these days, and the Pack knew the reason why. Seth had started sneaking through Chancy's window almost every night, and no one was buying her comments about being so exhausted because of studying for finals. It had been a long time since Seth had been regularly getting any, and despite how slowly he was recovering from Neel's attack, their Beta had been in a fabulous mood because of the redhead. Brady personally thought the girl was kind of weird, but Seth was a little weird too, and if she made his Beta happy, then Brady was cool with her. Plus Chancy might have been sleeping with Seth, but the pair were enjoying a "best friends with benefits" status, meaning that Chancy could ogle anyone she wanted and Seth wasn't going to get pissed about it.

Of course, that didn't mean that Seth and the rest of them wouldn't scare the hell out of any little shit that thought he could move in on Seth's territory, but Chancy didn't know that.

Speaking of territory, Brady didn't know the name of that asshole that had just sat down next to Nikki's more annoying friend, but Brady didn't like the way he was staring at Kim's sister. Brady's eyes narrowed as he chewed on his food.

"Brady. Earth to Braaaaaaady. Come in, Brady. Come in—oh. I get it. Wow, he's really moving in on your woman, isn't he? How about this: I'll phase and hamstring him, and you can go for his jugular." Brady's head snapped around at that, startled. Sims winked at him from around her lollipop as Jake failed to make his layup, distracted by his imprint outing them in front of a human. "Just kidding."

"Whaddya mean by phase?" Chancy asked absently, still watching the guys and not really paying attention.

"NAMTO," Sims and Brady replied simultaneously, causing the redhead to flip them off with a backwards flopping hand. Brady and the she-wolf shared a snicker, and across the basketball court, Jake smiled without meaning to, something he sometimes did when his imprint was amused and he was this close to her. Brady always knew when it happened, because the Alpha would blink and then shake his head, as if trying to refocus himself.

In the time that all went down, Collin tried and failed to make two baskets and scratched his ass when he thought no one was looking. Brady had different asses to stare at, so he returned his glower to the asshole leaning in towards Nikki again, and this time pretty eyes caught him watching.

Brady quickly jerked his own eyes away, back towards his Packmate.

"You like her, don't you?" Sims asked him, propping herself up on her elbows, the white paper end of her sucker sticking out of the side of her mouth. "Nikki. You really like her."

Brady flushed, grunting something unintelligible, and Sims chuckled. "What do you care?" the male wolf grumped, the red stain deepening on his cheeks when he saw a smirk begin to curl Sims' lips, the she-wolf's white teeth flashing.

"You liiike her," Sims teased around her lollipop, waiting until Brady took a large bite of his sandwich. "It's the boobs, isn't it?"

Mid-swallow, Brady began choking. "What the hell, Samantha?" he gasped, spraying bits of bread and mustard on the table. Sims' face scrunched up and she flicked a piece of partially chewed food off of her knee and back at him.

"I'm just saying, she's got some nice boobs," the she-wolf decided, nodding sagely. "If I was a guy, and I was trying to decide which girls to hook up with, I would definitely pick a girl with a big rack. Not too big, not creepy floppy big, but something with some good squish to it."

To emphasize her point, Sims glanced around and in failing to find an adequate study, she grabbed the front of her shirt with both hands and tugged it out. "About there, I think. Maybe a little bigger, I'm not really sure. Guys have bigger hands, so the hand to boob squishing ratio would be different…"

Brady quit trying to chew at this point and instead simply stared, mouth wedged full of bread and meat and eyes wide as she suddenly reached over and grabbed his wrist. Brady instinctively cringed, as if afraid his hand was about to go somewhere that it shouldn't in the name of speculation, and instead he found himself palm to palm with her own, much smaller hand.

"What the hell are you doing?" Brady demanded, and she smiled at him from around her lolly, unaware that her lips were turning a bright shade of blue. It was a smile that he hadn't seen in a while, one devoid of that harsh bitterness that made him feel like he was looking in a mirror.

A smaller, prettier mirror, but a mirror nonetheless.

"Brady to Samantha conversion factors," Sims told him, her eyes sparkling. She tapped the ends of her fingers against the palm sides of his knuckles. "There's two of you for every one of me, so whatever boob size I'd enjoy grabbing, I have to double it to become Brady-friendly."

And the young wolf realized that he was smiling too, even though it was ridiculous. "You idiot," he smirked. "Any sized rack is Brady-friendly. Do you know how long it's been—"

"Eww! Too much information, Brady!" Sims declared, falling back on the picnic table and snickering. She pulled her sunglasses off the top of her head and back over her eyes. "But I approve, not that it matters necessarily. She's hot, and she's nice and she's obviously likes you back. Every time you stop staring at her, she starts staring at you."

Brady grunted, but couldn't help feel pleased at her words. From across the basketball court, he saw Nikki scoot a little further away from the guy that had sat down, looking somewhat frustrated. Brady caught her eye, and when she didn't look away, he risked giving her a wink. It worked for Collin all of the time, and for once, it worked for him too. This time it was someone else who was blushing, and this time it was the other side of the mirror who was grinning like he used to.

He really should go over there to talk to her. He could say…he'd say…what the fuck was he supposed to say? My name's Brady, I live with Kim and Jared. Will you let me motorboat you?

Brady contemplated if that would work as he finished his lunch. Chancy had fallen asleep. Sims was still talking, and still groping herself in the name of self-discovery. It had been a really good sandwich.

"D's. I like D's, Brady, and your girl's packing doubles. So that means you choose wisely, and you should ask her out. She'll say yes," the she-wolf promised him, flicking him in the forehead as she did. "You're a wolf. Go. Do something impressive."

The Alpha's eye twitched and he missed another layup, so Brady made sure to flick her in the temple twice as he rose to his feet and smirked. "Jake's gonna get an ulcer if you don't stop saying stuff like that."

"He likes the attention," the she-wolf said, and when Jake gave her a pained look, she playfully snapped her teeth at him. Then she turned her attention back to Brady. "Okay, I'm going to tell you a secret. It worked for Embry, it worked for Seth, and it's going to work for you."

Yes. Yes. This was what he needed. This was why he had dragged her out of those fucking caves, so Sims could tell him—

"Take your shirt off, and clench your ass cheeks. Trust me, it'll do shit to your abs like you wouldn't believe—hey! What was that for? That's my candy!"

Now it was his candy, because Brady deserved it for almost taking her shitty advice. But he did lose the shirt, and dumped it on her face, because it would make the she-wolf a good pillow. Plus, there were other ways than talking to impress a girl, and Collin never had been able to go one on one with the Alpha in basketball without looking like a dumbass.

It was rare for Brady to feel this confident, but his best friend was giving him a look of desperate appeal, a good looking girl with a nice chest was staring at his stomach, and having Jake around made life better any day. Brady left her on her table with a now snoring redhead, mumbling beneath his shirt as Sims gave herself one more good pat just for science's sake, then started groping lower.

Maybe she was actually an ass girl instead.