Tropes meme: The ficlets
romanajo123 asked for The Doctor and Romana, accidental-baby-acquisition
"I think it came from your shopping," the Doctor said, looking at the cluster of bulging carrier bags adjacent to the TARDIS door.
Romana's look of puzzlement remained unchanged. "I can't think why. I know exactly what I bought and none of it should be making noises like that."
"That's as may be." The Doctor crouched down beside the bags. "Tinker, tailor, soldier... aha!"
He stared into the bag, then looked up at Romana. "Are you quite sure this is your shopping?"
"Of course I am. Why?"
"There's a baby in here."
Romana closed the distance between herself and the bags at something close to a run, and looked down at the gurgling infant. "Well, I didn't put it there."
"That's why I was asking if you'd picked up someone else's bag."
"It looks like my bag." Romana knelt down. "Could you take the baby out for a moment?"
The Doctor did so. Romana peered into the bag.
"Yes," she said. "This is definitely my shopping. Ah." She produced an envelope. "But this isn't. It must be the documentation for the baby."
"You think if there's a receipt the shop might take him back?" The Doctor shook his head sadly. "That would be most unusual, in my experience."
Romana had already opened the envelope, and extracted a single sheet of paper. "Apparently," she said, "we've been entrusted with the Dauphin of the Xort dynasty, and royalist agents will be in touch." She turned to the TARDIS console. "Not unless they've got a timeship - we're already several thousand years away."
"The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley," the Doctor said solemnly, impartially addressing Romana and the baby with equal consideration.
"I wrote a paper on the disadvantages of hereditary monarchy," Romana went on. "I shall have to revise it to cover situations like this." She turned the letter over in her hands. "There aren't any other instructions."
"No." The Doctor gave her a grin. "Babies don't come with a manual, in my experience."
lost_spook gave me a choice, and I picked forced to share a bed - Adam/Georgie
"Cheer up," Georgie said. "It could be worse."
Adam's expression suggested he was not convinced of this argument. Which, to Georgie's way of thinking, wasn't at all the right attitude to take. As far as she was concerned, he should be looking forward to sharing a bed with a beautiful woman - to whit, her.
"We've got our night things, haven't we?" she went on. "It's not like we broke down in some remote village with only the clothes on our backs. And if you're worried about our reputations, it can't muck them up when everyone here thinks we're called Mr and Mrs Colton, can it?"
"A fair point," Adam conceded. "But it is still a situation I would rather not be in. One might walk along the brink of a cliff in perfect safety, but it would be safer to keep one's distance from the edge."
"But not as much fun," Georgie said. "Anyway, I can spend a night in bed with someone and keep my hands to myself. And everything else, too. Just ask Ricky-"
"I have no intention of asking anybody anything of the kind!"
Georgie grinned. "Don't worry. I'll get you a signed testimonial from him about how well-behaved I was."
"In any event," Adam said, with an air of finality, "we must remain alert tonight, and not engage in any... distracting activities. If the Phantom behaves as we expect, he will attempt to burgle this room tonight. We must be alert and ready for him."
"So we mustn't wear ourselves out getting jiggy. Gotcha." Georgie threw herself down on her side of the four-poster. "Holy moly! What did they put in this mattress, coal? I don't think we need to worry about not going to sleep."
"Nevertheless, we must appear to be so when he makes his entrance."
"I suppose we'd better turn in, then." She pulled off her kimono, revealing that her nightdress was made of a see-through material. "Ready when you are."
She looked across to Adam, who was chivalrously averting his gaze, and tried not to smile. One thing was certain: there would be very little sleep for anybody that night.
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