When he'd gotten out of work that afternoon, Derek went over to Spencer's. He walked up to the front door, knocking.

"It's open," Spencer called out.

He raised an eyebrow, opening the door and stepping inside. "Where are you?"

"My second home."

Derek looked in the kitchen. "You're not at the coffeemaker."

Spencer mock laughed. "Fine, my third home."

Derek smiled, closing the door and taking off his jacket, hanging it by the door before walking to the study, leaning against the doorway. "This is a familiar sight."

Spencer had picked up some tape and divided the corkboard into five different sections, with the name of each school tacked to the top of each one. "And what is that sight? Me studying?"

"You could say that." Derek eyed the board. "So, one of these bad boys, huh?"

He nodded. "One of these five schools is going to be my new home."

"Our," Derek corrected.

"I know you probably just said that to appease Penelope. You don't need to do it-"

He shook his head. "I didn't do it to appease anybody but myself. I have no problem getting a fresh start somewhere else. I know I don't have the most impressive resume, but with a face like this," he motioned toward himself, "come on, it's gotta be pretty easy to start over."

"I see our time away from each other has made you no less arrogant," Spencer teased, waiting for some papers to print before tacking them up on the board.

"Never stop what you're good at," Derek said, grinning at him. "Now, what are you putting up?"

"Things to keep you occupied in the locales. I mean, I'll obviously be pre-occupied with school and other things involving school, so I won't need anything to keep me busy. But you, I don't want you to be bored. There's sports teams, museums, different activities, job opportunities, the distances from here to there and from there to Chicago…"

Derek checked his watch. "How long was I at work?"

"Just a few hours. But," Spencer pointed to his forehead, "genius."

Derek laughed to himself. "Apparently so."

Spencer dragged a chair over, patting it. "Join the club."

Derek sat down, leaning back in the chair and eyeing the board. "So, have you come any closer to narrowing it down?"

He shook his head. "Not even a little bit."

Derek clicked his tongue. "I think we're going to need some coffee for this."

Spencer put up a finger. "Considering you've made coffee for the last eight hours, I'm on it. While I'm gone? Start looking," he said, pointing to the board and walking out.

Derek leaned forward on his elbows, reading everything in each of the columns. Spencer had gone out of his way to look up things that would interest him, and it seemed like everything about sports teams and arenas was taken from a Wikipedia page.

Spencer walked back in a minute later with a carafe in one hand and two coffee mugs in the other.

"What, no sugar?" Derek asked.

He set the mugs and carafe on the desk, reaching in his pocket and taking out several sugar packets. "Any other ridiculous questions?"

Derek shook his head. "Two sugars, please."

Spencer poured him a cup of coffee, stirring in the sugar. "So, what do you think?" he asked, motioning toward the board. "Anything jumping out at you?"

He shrugged, taking the mug from him. "One's close to Chicago, one's close to here, one's practically equidistant to the two, one's close-ish to here, and the final one is pretty far from both. That's about all I've gathered aside from the fact you're a Wikipedia copier."

"It's not in an academic sense, so I didn't do anything wrong," Spencer pointed out, pouring his own coffee and sitting beside him, tucking his feet underneath himself and leaning back. "This is going to take us a while, isn't it?"

Derek nodded. "Afraid so. And when do these schools want to hear back?"

"...As soon as possible."

He exhaled. "Good thing you just made a fresh pot of coffee."

They spent a good amount of time just staring at their choices before Derek spoked up.

"Okay, what about this one?" he asked, pointing.

Spencer clicked his tongue. "Great academic programs and it's a good school…"

"But?" Derek asked.

Spencer sighed. "But I don't know." He ran a hand through his hair. "They're all fantastic colleges, but just up and leaving and choosing one of them is hard."

Derek leaned over, grabbing the coffee pot and pouring himself another cup. "Okay, so obviously the positives aren't working here. What about the negatives?"

He groaned, resting his chin in his hand. "I don't know. I've been so focused on trying to find the positives about each of them that I never bothered to look into the negatives."

"Have you tried checking Rate My Professor to see what other students think of the educators at the school?"

He shook his head. "Never heard of it."

"What about college reviews given by the students?"

"...I wasn't aware they did that."

"Uh huh… and what about googling the schools?"

Spencer clicked his tongue. "I did that, and that's how I got all of the information up there."

Derek walked over to the desk, sitting down in front of the computer. "Come on, genius. It's time for me to teach you a few things."

"And this time won't result in an injury on your part?"

"...Probably not."

Spencer pulled his chair over, sitting beside him. "Then I'm ready to learn."

"First thing's first? College reviews. There are plenty of websites that allow students, and anyone really, to go on and speak their mind about the way the college works and talk about their experiences."

"Seriously?"

He nodded, pointing to the screen. "You just need to type in the name and read the reviews. There's going to be plenty of them, so it's a good thing one of us has a super fast reading speed," he told him, printing off the reviews and picking up the papers, handing them to Spencer.

Spencer counted the pages before reading. "Interesting."

Derek opened up a website. "Now, do you know who your professors are at these schools?"

"Well, on the site, it mentions which professors work in the Mathematics, Chemistry, and Engineering departments, specifically the graduate programs."

He nodded, opening them up in new tabs. "So are you going to be a chemist/engineer/mathematician?"

He shrugged slightly, reading the reviews. "If the need arises for one, I can fill the position. Those are the three degrees I'm most passionate about and would like to expand on." He got up, pinning the reviews to the board and sitting back down. "So there are students who actually give their professors ratings? Aren't the end of semester reviews enough?"

"No, because on these sites, they can be brutally honest. The reviews are just a scale of 1-5 and a little blurb. Here you can say anything."

"...And do professors know about this?"

"Some do. Others don't. The point is, you get reviews not based on their credentials, but on how they teach from people who actually learned from them."

Spencer nodded. "Print away."

"And while you read over those, I'll be doing my own research."

As Spencer was reading, Derek was clicking around. "What about your dad?"

Spencer shrugged. "...What about him?"

"Does he know you're moving and won't need this place, then you'll possibly need another?"

"Well, considering I'd rather eat dirt than call him up and have a conversation with him as if he never abandoned my mother and I, I'm making it a last minute letter sort of thing."

"Can't say I blame you for that." He clicked his tongue. "Is there a reason you researched coffee shops and construction companies as my job opportunities?"

"I just figured you'd either like to continue with the known, or you'd finally give yourself the push to pursue what you'd really like to do. Was I wrong?"

Derek shook his head. "Not at all. How go the reviews?"

"Well," he started, eyebrows raised, "one professor has been called a 'jackass', 'asshat', and 'douchebag' all in one review. I think I may avoid his classes."

He chuckled. "Probably a good call."

They worked at it for a couple of hours before there was a knock on the door.

Derek eyed him. "Are you expecting company?"

Spencer shook his head. "My guess is it's a nosy sister or your co-worker wanting to snoop and figure out how we're doing."

Derek minimized the window. "So long as whoever it is brought some dinner so we don't need to order takeout, they can be as nosy as they want."

Spencer laughed, getting up. "That's probably how they know they'll make it through the door. Can you step away from that right now?" he asked, motioning toward the computer.

He nodded, standing up and stretching. "If I read another paragraph my eyes may start bleeding. I could definitely get away."

There was another knock at the door and Spencer groaned. "Now I know it's JJ. If I don't answer within two minutes, she knocks again. Then again. And again." He walked over, opening the door. "Yes?"

JJ held up a bag. "Will's got Henry out for the night at a hockey game and I didn't want to be alone for dinner. Chinese?"

"Please," Derek said, holding the door open.

JJ raised her eyebrows. "Well, somebody had a good day," she said, stepping inside and setting the bag on the table before going into the cabinets and grabbing some plates. "Would anyone care to explain?"

"...As if Penelope didn't call you as soon as her shift was over and tell you what happened?" Spencer answered, closing the door.

She grinned. "All I heard was happy squealing and clapping and the names 'Derek' and 'Spencer'. Would anyone care to explain?"

Spencer walked over, looking through the boxes and making himself a plate. "Over dinner, gladly."

Derek set glasses on the table, along with some wine from Spencer's fridge. He held out the bottle to Spencer, who nodded, and poured two glasses.

"Celebrating with wine?" JJ pushed her glass over. "Count me in."

"So what's going on?" JJ asked, setting down her fork and taking a sip of her wine.

Spencer shrugged. "We're having dinner with some wine? More specifically, Chinese food."

Derek smirked, taking a bite of his rice and shaking his head.

"Not what I meant and you know it. A few days ago, I couldn't get you to even say Derek's name without anger or angst, and now not only are you talking to him, but he's over here again."

"And the whole coffee shop thing was your idea."

"Penelope's," she corrected. "I was at work and I had no part in it."

Derek smiled. "Don't worry, I knew there was something going on. Penelope was far too giddy and Spencer coming in was far too much of a coincidence."

"Subtlety has never been her thing…"

"No, really?" Spencer said, shaking his head and taking a bite of his food.

She grinned. "So is everything good here?"

Spencer eyed Derek, swallowing his food and looking at JJ. "Everything's fine."

"Really? No more moping, no more sadness?"

"Definitely not."

She pointed to Derek. "I was actually talking to him."

Spencer raised an eyebrow, looking at him. "Oh?"

He motioned toward JJ. "She showed up at my house, I'm guessing before hatching the coffee shop plan, and we had a pretty good conversation."

"...About me?"

"Maybe," JJ said, reaching over and grabbing more rice out of the container. "He's what made us hatch the plan."

Spencer turned to Derek. "...Thanks, I guess?"

"You're welcome." Derek eyed JJ. "And thank you."

She put up her hands. "Trust me, I'm glad I did it."

After they'd finished dinner, Derek did cleanup while JJ had pulled Spencer in the living room to talk to him.

"Everything's okay?"

Spencer sat on the couch, nodding and grinning. "Everything's great. We talked it out at the coffee shop, he came here once his shift was over, and he's been here ever since."

She sat across from him, running her fingers through her hair. "So what's going to happen?"

"We're going to figure that out," he said, shrugging.

"And you're okay with that?"

"Very okay with that. Unless, of course, you want me to go back to the state I was in a few days ago."

She scoffed. "Definitely not."

Derek walked in, looking at Spencer. "Should we get back to work?" he asked, motioning toward the room. "Or are we done?"

"Back to work?" JJ asked. "In the room…" her eyes widened. "Oh lord, I didn't interrupt something, did I?! If I did, I am so incredibly sorry and I'll just be done right now."

Spencer shook his head. "Nothing like that. We're just having conversations and trying to make life decisions."

"Well, that sounds like fun," she said, stretching. "Should I leave you two to your decision making?"

"If you'd like?" Spencer offered. "We'll just be in the office looking at websites and printing out enough paper to make up a poor tree that was chopped down for it."

Derek smiled, grabbing JJ's jacket from the hook. "I'll walk you out."

She leaned over, hugging Spencer and ruffling his hair. "Stay happy, Spence."

"I'm planning on it."

She grinned, patting his shoulder and getting up, taking her jacket from Derek and putting it on.

Derek walked outside with her, closing the door and leaning against it. "Thank you."

"As much as you needed to be happy for you? I needed you to be happy for him. Henry's going to be thrilled that his Uncle Spence is going to want to spend time with him again."

"Happy to help. Feel free to call me up if the little man wants to use my big yard for playing some time."

"I'll hold you to it." She gave him a hug, pulling back and smiling at him. "Take care of him."

"I promise."

Derek walked back inside to find that Spencer had gone back into the study to try to figure everything out. He went to the room and Spencer was once again sitting in his chair, his legs crossed underneath himself, and staring at the board.

"Do you think the answer's going to pop up if you stare at it long enough?" Derek asked, crossing his arms.

Spencer jumped slightly before shaking his head. "No, I'm just hoping it works this way."

Derek clicked his tongue. "You know, we've worried about you and we've worried about me, but there's someone else we need to consider in this situation too."

Spencer looked at him, confused. "Excuse me?"

"Well, there's you. There's me. And Clooney makes three. We'll need a place where he's going to be happy too."

Spencer's eyes widened. "I didn't even - I hadn't considered him coming. I mean, I know he's yours and he would be coming, but I didn't consider him as, you know, something to consider. I'm so sorry."

"No time like the present," Derek said, sitting at the computer again and opening some search engines. "Dog friendly campuses and areas with nearby dog parks… coming… now," he said, hitting print and waiting for the pages to come out. Once they were printed, he handed the sheets to Spencer. "You're welcome."

Spencer smiled, grabbing some push pins and putting the papers up on the board. "Is that the last of the information we need to solve this problem?"

"I think so," Derek said, rolling his chair back over beside Spencer's. "And now we think."

Spencer nodded, exhaling. "And now we think."

Derek wasn't sure how long he was staring at all of it before he closed his eyes, shaking his head and burying it in his hands. "Damn."

Spencer nodded, rubbing his eyes. "I agree."

"They all seem great," Derek started, pointing his hand toward the board. "They're good schools and every place seems like a great place to start a new life. How do we choose one?"

He shrugged slightly. "I don't know. Each one has its own pros and cons."

Derek eyed him. "This is all about your college experience, so why aren't you the one making the final decision and telling me to deal with it?"

Spencer shook his head. "I would, but I'm not the only one up and leaving my life behind to start over. It involves both of us and we both need to be involved in this decision. So you get to enjoy suffering too."

Derek mock laughed, leaning back in his chair and exhaling. "Great… which one is sticking out to you?"

Spencer clicked his tongue, eyeing the board and getting up, pointing to one of the sections. "Good academic programs, it's relatively close to here, and it seems like a good place to start over."

Derek motioned toward it. "Then there we go."

Spencer shook his head again. "No, there we don't go, because your body language is telling me that you were thinking of one of the other places and you're settling to try to please me, but that's not what I want. I want both of us to be happy. So come on. Out with it."

He sighed, standing on the other side of the board. "They're all good choices for me to start over, and obviously, they're all good for you because they all want you. You have opportunities no matter where we go. But this one?" He pointed. "This seems to be the best place for me to get a fresh start. Again, though, it's all on you."

Spencer stood back, taking it all in and thinking to himself. He rubbed his temples before leaning against the wall, clicking his tongue. "We'll go there."

Derek pointed where Spencer had. "Here?"

He shook his head, motioning to the part Derek had chosen. "Here. I can go to school anywhere, but I need you to be able to have a good, fresh start and be happy where we are. I've heard horror stories of old college classmates who moved in with significant others, thinking everything would be fine, and then the relationship just falters because one of them didn't have a plan and ends up being miserable."

Derek clicked his tongue. "Well, I guess that's where we'll be calling home sweet home."

"At least we will be in nearly a year."

Derek eyed him. "Nearly?"

"Well, I'd start in the winter semester, so it'd be nine months. Approximately 306 days."

Derek grinned. "There he is."

Spencer motioned toward the door. "Come on, this has been long and daunting. I think we've earned ice cream sundaes."

"Now you're speaking my language," Derek said, smirking and patting his back, following him to the kitchen.

Spencer scooped the ice cream into a couple of bowls before going into his fridge, taking out a can of whipped cream and grabbing sprinkles from the cabinet, putting them in the bowls.

"Genius, those wheels are turning. Want to tell me what you're thinking?" Derek asked, sticking his finger into one of the sundaes and scooping up some whipped cream, licking it.

"Well, first and foremost, that's your sundae," he said, putting in a spoon and sliding it over to him.

"Second and secondmost?" Derek asked, picking up the spoon and taking a bite.

"Secondmost isn't really a word?"

Derek shook his head. "That's not it and we both know it."

Spencer tapped his fingers against the side of his bowl before sighing. "I'm just… concerned."

"...About?"

He pushed the spoon around in his bowl. "I'm wondering how we're going to handle living together full-time. I know that we've spent plenty of time together in the past, but this is going to be spending time together all the time - morning, afternoon, and night. It's going to be a lot to handle."

"I think we're capable."

"As do I but… we just had an argument and didn't talk to each other for weeks. How are we going to handle arguments if we literally have no escape from each other?"

Derek set his bowl in the sink. "Well... this is going to sound extreme I'm sure… but we could always talk about our problems and work it out?"

Spencer smiled slightly. "Well, that would make things simpler."

"I'm sure. And besides, we have 306 days to figure it out."