He still had a job to do.

That was pretty much what was running through his brain Monday morning. It wasn't like nothing else mattered; he wasn't forgetting about Angel, or the boys, or the pain he was feeling …

It was just a simple fact that kind of kept running through his brain, like his brain was a treadmill.

He had to do his job.

So he went to NYU, and he grabbed a bitter coffee out of one the brown vending machines, gulping down the heat, feeling it burning his throat but not really caring. He wished there was a bar here instead.

Heaving a small sigh, Collins started the trek to his classroom, soon entering the already-full auditorium, scanning the faces that had become somewhat familiar to him over the Mondays of the past few months. A month since …

Collins shook his head and bounded to the front of the room, standing at his desk. He looked up to face everyone.

"Sorry I'm late," he said, not sorry, not caring if they cared or not. He rifled through the papers on his desk before remembering he'd left his notes at home. Collins grinned and shrugged. Oh well. Impromptu lecture about to commence.

Collins walked out in front of his desk, grinning to himself as he lighted onto his desk, settling himself in comfortably as he swept the useless papers below him onto the floor. These kids hadn't gotten to know him too well yet. Well, he thought, welcome to Collinsville, bitches.

He looked out into the mass of faces before him. "First law of thermodynamics."

He saw the confusion rolling through them. This wasn't what the class was supposed to be about. Collins' eyes twinkled.

"Matter can neither be created or destroyed. It just is. It might change, transform, but at its very basic level …" Collins swallowed. "It's still there."

Collins gave the students, and Angel, a moment of silence before suddenly hopping up to stand on his desk.

"What's the matter?" he asked, grinning, in response to the round of gasps he heard. He laughingly shook a finger at them. "You all need to try jumping up on things more often. Gets the heart pumping." He stretched his arms over his head, looking towards the ceiling. "Blows out the cobwebs!"

Collins stood there a moment, eventually crossing his arms over his chest and cutting an impressive figure against a backdrop of a huge white screen and wooden walls.

"Get out of here," he said, laughing inwardly as he caught the terrified glance of a girl in the third row of seats. "Go get naked. Get drunk. Go out and kiss and fuck and celebrate." Collins lightly leaped down, bending his knees before landing and then straightening up, again levelly staring at his students. "There. That's your homework assignment for the week. Go on, get out of here," he repeated, turning around and listening to the small crashings and mumblings and paddings that signaled people getting up from the desks and walking up the aisle out of the classroom.

When he was sure he was alone, Collins turned back to his desk and flopped down, smiling to himself.

Maybe he would go to Santa Fe. Just for a couple of days. Let the warm wind wash through his mind.

It had worked for Roger. He could go there, get far enough away to stimulate some new experiences, new emotions. Shock himself back into missing New York, into missing all the people he knew cared so deeply about him, instead of just missing Angel.

Not that he wanted to not miss her. Oh, no.

Even in Santa Fe, her sticks would be traveling with him. He patted them, safe in his pocket before gathering up his things and striding out of the classroom.