a/n: I should be getting ready for finals.

Disclaimer: Not you DD

Title: précis

Words: 510

Summary: Tom and Carl have a slight adjustment after Dairine's Ordeal.

The day after It went home, Tom and Carl read the précis over in their living room. Again. The appearance of the précis yesterday had been followed by: an empty bird cage, a secret branch of NASA being very confused, a new chapter in their manuals about a sub-category of Speech that was an inch thick, and phone calls from two sets of worried parents.

Tom made himself a new pot of coffee.

Carl glanced over to where the empty bird cage was. He sighed. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Nope!" said his partner. Tom was looking into their kitchen cabinet, wondering which mug would best suit his current mood. He picked a cheerful one that had pictures of a tropical rain forest painted in bright colors.

"Denial increases entropy."

Tom muttered, "This workload increases entropy." His manual, opened on the counter for he was attempting to make coffee, was faintly glowing as another section was added, and Dairine's précis grew in size. He refused to look at Nita and Kit's yet. A particular line of Speech caught his eye, and Tom slowly set his empty cup down, a headache forming between his eyes. "Did she really reenact the original Big Bang?"

"Jesus," said Carl. He closed his manual, and he dropped his head into his hands.

"That's a hypothetical guest appearance." The coffee was ready, and Tom poured his partner a cup, too. He walked back to the living room, manual tucked under his arm, and sat down to enjoy a moment's peace before the nagging voice in the back of his mind reminded him about work.

The nagging voice often sounded like his father.

Tom opened his manual again, the page automatically at the précis. A new paragraph had been added. Carl whistled. Tom glared at him. "My next hand cramp is going to be named after you."

"So touchy," said Carl, smiling. He threw up a miniature model of the silicon planet in the air; a block of scrolling text hovered next to it. The planet began to slowly revolve, shadows and lights dancing around it until the ghostly apparition of Dairine appeared on the planet's surface. "Wizards these days with their fancy Ordeals."

"We had a good one," Tom reminded him. "I think their star is still named after your grandmother."

But Carl wasn't paying attention to his partner, he was instead staring at the bird cage with a brooding expression. "I still can't believe it. Our own damn bird…"

Tom ran a finger down his new vocabulary list. He paused and raised his head. "Hey, Carl, are we still going to Timeheart? Because all I can now think of are all the times we've threated Peach with solitary, feeding her to a white hole, more time outs—" He paused abruptly again. "The Bright One ate my favorite tie."

"The Powers work in mysterious ways," agreed Carl. He saluted the bird cage with his coffee. "Well met on the common journey, Machu Picchu."

"Well met, you cannibalistic pain in the ass," Tom added cheerfully.