Prompt: “Listen, I can’t explain it, you’ll have to trust me.”  

(pairing: eric/ailee. Genre: sci-fi. Rating: pg-ish. Words: 1254)  

‘What would you if you knew the world was going to end?’ is a ridiculous question, and Eric usually stays far away from that sort of hypothetical thinking – he's an MIT graduate, he swears by science and anything he can plot into a predetermined formula, he knows things, and he also knows that the world isn’t suddenly just going to end like that. Its inhabitants are going to extort its resources gradually, exponentially, and then one day there won’t be any more oil, any more water, any more food, and that’s how it’s all going to end. Not with fire and fury, like the mainstream media likes to portray. Or, you know, that’s what he’s been telling himself for at least a decade. Things might have become a little more complicated than that.  

At first he thinks nothing of it. Asteroids are common in space, nothing to worry about – unless, of course, they’re headed directly towards Earth, which this particular asteroid seems to be doing. That is something to worry about. And that is also why he’s currently speeding through every single red light in his wake, narrowly avoiding crashing into an oncoming car. He’s breaking almost every law of traffic there is, this he knows, but he thinks that the potential end of the world is a pretty valid excuse. Not that he can tell anyone, of course, he’s sworn to secrecy by a surprisingly big and surprisingly scary legal team.  

Which is why he’s calling Amy.  

Amy and him go way back – they were friends before they were a couple, and research partners before they were friends, and now they’re somewhere in between colleagues and friendly exes. Which, in retrospect, could have been a lot worse.  

She exits the building just as he pulls up to the curb, and she hasn’t even said hi yet before Eric’s putting the car in gear. “What’s going on?” she asks, and Eric just shakes his head. “No time to explain, just get in the car.” 

“Are you sure?” She has this look on her face that’s made up of mostly wonder and a tiny bit of disbelief, because even though they’re friendly, they haven’t exactly perfected the art of casual carpool-conversation just yet. Eric blames the fact that Amy’s always been the social one, and he’s more of a bystander. “Yes,” he says, and frantically moves to open the door for her. Amy’s mother may have a point when she calls him a gentleman. “Listen, I can’t explain it, you’ll just have to trust me. Get in the car, please?” And, thankfully, she does. As soon as she’s closed the door behind her he speeds up, emitting a loud string of car horns honking in his wake.  

“What’s going on? You were never this bad at driving- look out!” Amy shrieks when he nearly crashes into a flock of pedestrians (children, his mind corrects, they’re children), only narrowly missing them. “I’ll explain later,” he replies tersely, and then he floors the gas pedal and speeds out of town as though he’s being hunted by mad hounds.  

When they finally stop, the sun is setting in the horizon, and they’re parked on a lay-by about halfway from absolutely nowhere, with no curious ears in sight. Amy’s sitting next to him with her thinking face on, like she always does when she’s trying to get something out of him. It's worked approximately eleven out of ten times in the past. “Okay. As much as I like a little bit of action,” Amy says, “you’re going to have to tell me what’s going on. Is this a kidnapping?” Despite everything, Eric has to laugh. “Not exactly,” is technically true, but of course it’s not enough for her. It never is. “So what is it, then?”  

“The world is about to end.”  

It’s surprisingly easy to own up to once the words are out. He’d maybe expected a little more hestitance on his own part, but in a way he’s glad she’s the first to know. Or the second, at least. She looks at him as if she’s not sure if he’s joking or not. “... What?” Then, a shake of her head. “No. Wait, no, where did you get that idea?”  

“Basic physics and math, I think.” 

“You think?” Okay. Maybe not his best argument to date. So, he elaborates. “There’s an asteroid. In the sky. Earth is in the way of its course. It’s only a matter of time before – well, boom.” Amy stares out of the front window of Eric’s car. “How much time?” He shrugs. “Six months. Give or take a few days.” He hears her mutter the reply under her breath, six months?, like she can’t really believe it. And to be fair, it is a lot to spring on a person just like that, but he feels like he has to tell someone, and to be honest, she’s very high up on the list of people he’d tell if the world was actually ending. At least up there with his parents and his brothers.  

“God damn it, Eric.” There’s a thump when the back of her head hits the headrest. He follows suit, and finally lets go of the steering wheel in favor of just dropping his hands into his lap. “How many people know about this?” Eric shrugs. “They’re in this car.” Amy looks over at him with a surprised look on his face. “Really?” He nods. “Why?” 

Yes, why? Amy doesn’t work in his department, hasn’t done in years, she’s a brilliant astrophysicist, but she’s got nothing to do with what Eric and his team is doing – which, most of the time, is looking at rows and rows of numbers, trying to find a problem where there usually isn’t one. It can be a very tedious experience at times, but that’s the price people like them pay to try and understand the great, big, inexplainable universe they’re all a part of. “I don’t know. I thought you wanted to know.” 

“I do want to know. I think.” She doesn’t look that certain. Which is kind of understandable. “What are we going to do?”  

“To stop the world’s inevitable demise?” Amy snorts. “That was the general idea, yes. We know. Do we tell anyone? Call someone? The police? The- president's office?” Eric doesn’t know. He's never experienced anything quite like this before, to be honest. “I suppose we have to. But it’s not like it’s going to change anything.”  

“Well - no. But you- we- have information that could change the world. We can’t just say nothing and then act surprised later, when someone in the Blue House figures it out.” That’s a very good point, but he’s not very good at talking. He's good at numbers, at facts and at calculations, but explaining to the president that there’s an asteroid on its way to destroy an entire planet? Not his forté. And maybe that has a whole lot to do with the fact that he’s decided to reach out in the first place. Amy’s always been his better half, both in a romantic and a platonic sense. Something about her just seems to fit well with him. They look at each other for a long minute. 

“Wanna go back to civilization and practice how to break the news in a fun and exciting way?” Eric asks, and earns himself a laugh. “You really need to leave the talking to me when we get there.” He can live with that, he thinks.