Alexis: A story in ten parts

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/34860.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/M
Fandom: All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye -- Brookmyre
Relationship: Alexis/Ross
Character: Alexis
Additional Tags: MIT, Drabbles
Collections: Yuletide 2009
Stats: Published: 2009-12-21 Words: 1000

Alexis: A story in ten parts

by Senji (Larilille)

Summary

A walk through Alexis' life after Bett.

Notes
See the end of the work for notes

Admissions Office
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge
MASSACHUSETTS

A White
1130 Orchard Boulevard
Toronto
CANADA

Dear Alexis White,

I am writing to congratulate you on your successful application

for a place on our Computer Science undergraduate course.

Whilst we would not usually accept a mature student with your

level of formal qualification we have been very impressed by the
reference supplied by your sponsor, M Bett, and I look forward to
meeting you in person.

I enclose an information pack including a map of the campus and a

list of required books.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr Albert Smith
(Dean of Admissions)
Lex couldn't sleep. Nerves weren't a problem she had; even before an operation she'd always been
fine. Of course, the way Bett ran them the problem was more one of finding time enough.

She gave up, decided to go for a walk, slipped out of the room, walked quietly downstairs, and
eased the door open; mindful that noise might disturb other restless sleepers.

She wandered the paths for a while before finding a group of people quietly discussing something -
- they fell silent then, seeing she wasn't official, beckoned her over.

"Umm, do you think you could belay this for us?"

Even at MIT First Day was a confusing mess of faces, forms, and confusing directions and by
midday Lex was convinced that:

The Campus could not actually be embedded in a three dimensional Euclidean space.

As a result it was capable of holding more people than she'd ever seen in her life; all
unusual, amusing, or with unpronounceable names.

Despite such things she was having the time of her life.

She put all the above down to sleep deprivation and between them they distracted her until a
strangely familiar sophomore winked at her then raised his eyes towards the Dome.

The First Day hack was pretty much the only topic of discussion at lunch. Most of the freshmen
knew of the MIT tradition of hacks, but the significance of this one eluded the table at which Lex
was sat until she had an inspiration and pulled out her laptop to confirm it.

The pattern around the Dome duplicated one of the Hollerith cards that had previously been used
during the admissions process, complete with warning:

DO NOT FOLD, SPINDLE, OR MUTILATE.

That mystery solved discussion turned from "what" to "who", at which point she faded back out of
the conversation.

Minor hacks continued throughout the year, with Lex's cracking skills providing significant aid to
the small group who were also joined by a freshman with excellent video editing skills. Their
intended big splash of the year involved modifying promotional videos at the spring careers fair...

"Hey, what are ... you! Last time I caught you suspiciously copying stuff off my computer ended
up with me kidnapped; so give me one good reason why I shouldn't set campus security on you
now to avoid that."

Alexis turned, blushing, as she realised whose voice it was.

"Because your mother is far, far, scarier?"

Ross was a lot more understanding a few hours, and a few beers, later; after all the group had
intended to poke fun at exactly those bits of the Arms Industry that Ross himself disapproved of.
"Next time, just email me, it'll be much easier," he told her, giving her his business card, which
turned out to be redundant as, as the evening progressed, their rambling conversation revealed a
shared wanderlust to discover what all the fuss was about when it came to skiing.

Four weeks later, in an alpine chalet, conversation turned to the meeting of each other's parents.

Lex's parents were fine. They saw college, and then Ross, as part of a progression towards
normality that their daughter's life had so far been lacking.

Dinner with Ross' father turned into tense silence, since Lex knew nothing about football, and Tom
didn't know a computer from a calculator, and thought hacking was something Rangers fans did in
the cold.

Insomnia again, the night before dinner with his mother. She'd been skeptical of Bett's
characterisation, but as the mission progressed she'd become increasingly in awe of Jane, and the
need to make a good impression in this context was overwhelming.

"Look at you. I bet you stayed up awake all night dreading this moment, right?"

Alexis nodded, suddenly aware how baseless her fears had been.

"Silly girl. As if I didn't already know lots of good things about you. And from what Ross has been
telling me college has been helping you with handling situations outside of your area of expertise."

"I guess."

"Well, then, nothing to be scared about here then! We all know, and trust, each other. And I'm
fairly sure that you and Ross aren't making the mistakes I did, although I'm sure you have your
own..."

Things after that were a bit of a blur. Lex got good grades at the end of her freshman year although
her examiners privately opined that she might have been top of the year had she been less
distracted.

Meanwhile other people were making other plans, contingent upon a question as yet unasked. Even
Bett came in with an uncharacteristic offer.

It was a quiet summer evening when the question was asked, and she was glad that for once the
life changing decision was in her own hands.

Not that the answer was a surprise, she said "Yes" of course.

Tom Fleming had always hoped he'd see his son wed in a proper Catholic ceremony in a church,
but much like everything else he'd done in his life he attended the wedding because it was expected
of him, despite it taking place in an anonymous French mansion, and containing no reference to
God at all.

He felt it was particularly expected of him because the groom's other parent was unable to be part
of his wedding party; although he was rather surprised to overhear his ex-wife, the matron of
honour, calming the bride's nerves with an "A-fag, my dear, a-fag."
End Notes

Apologies if this is a little rough -- my life suddenly got very hectic just after the
assignments went out.

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