Time Lord and His Lady

Epilogue: And You'd Love Me, Like You Used to Do

April 8, 1960

It was never a good idea that you were summoned to an academic advisor's office, nearly two years into your degree, when you haven't decided on the particulars of your major yet. The small note had arrived in my dormitory, and Rowena offered to go with me, but I told her it would be better if I went on my own. Rowena was pretty much my only friend, given that Isaac and Sebastian were just back from Vietnam and attempting to get back to normal, alongside their wives, Kira and Mary, who had married them before they left, and Toby was spending way too many weekends out in Los Angeles with who was sure to be his latest fling. I could have spoken to my parents more, but Daddy was double-booked at the hospital night and day, and Mama was socializing more than ever, as she now only worked half the time.

Sure, Isaac and Kira had me over for dinner now and again, and I was getting along very well with three-year-old Prescott and newborn Gregory, but it just didn't feel as if any of us were completely at ease yet. Sebastian was married to Mary, and they had a daughter, two-year-old Minnie, and a son, Bernard, who was six-months-old. I was just never as close to Isaac and Sebastian as I was to Toby, for likely reasons, and, by the same token, it extended to both Kira and Mary. I had nothing in common with any of them, not really, given that our political stances were so different, Isaac and Kira worked in the medical field, and Sebastian was in the final year of getting his degree to become a lawyer.

"You look fine," Rowena encouraged me from across the room, grinning; her plans that Friday were to actually fly home for the week, as spring vacation had officially begun, and she would be departing for London in the next hour or so, to meet her fiancé, Desmond Thomson, who seemed like a decent-enough person.

I grimaced at that; I just had to attend this final meeting before I drove home for the night, which, thankfully, would take less than an hour, if my 1957 Ford Thunderbird would actually cooperate. It was painted a shade of pale pink, which was not, I firmly decided, a serious color, now that I was no longer a seventeen-year-old girl getting her first car with Daddy's money, but I never complained about it to anyone, save for Toby, Rowena, and myself.

"Stop thinking about your car," Rowena scolded me lightly, crossing the room and turning me back to face the mirror, and adjusted my skirt.

I sighed, staring at myself in the mirror. "At least it's a dress my mother would approve of," I told her, looking at the tartan fabric.

"I thought your mother was British," Rowena said, catching my eyes in the mirror.

"Right, yeah, she is," I told her. "But, you remember that I was adopted by my aunt and uncle, right, after my parents were killed in World War Two?"

Rowena sighed, looking incredibly guilty. "Right, of course, I'm sorry," she said quickly. "I know your uncle, who's your dad now, was your father's older brother, which means you're British on your father's side..."

"And Scottish on my mother's side," I told her patiently. I reached up and patted her hand where it lay upon her shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up about it, really."

Rowena leaned down, resting her chin upon my shoulder for a moment. "Is Colin coming to Greensboro with you?" she asked.

I nodded, moving to gather up my gloves and purse; I really detested them both, but they went with my outfit, and my mother was very particular about that. "Yes, he is. Daddy and Mama are very excited to meet him..."

Rowena crossed her arms. "I don't like the way he treats you," she said softly. "He's too close to that Meredith Pendleton girl..."

"Their fathers are best friends and business partners, and they've known each other forever," I tell her, always quick to defend my boyfriend. "Besides, she's two years younger than he is, and is best friends with his younger sister, Barbara, who went to Meredith College. He's just looking out for her, really, Row. He thinks of her as his little sister. He's told me that."