Fic: How Very 1920s (Charley/Zoe, Eight/Jamie, etc. PG-13)
Title: How Very 1920s
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: None
Words: ~3000
Characters/Pairings: Charley/Zoe, Eight/Jamie, Two/Jamie(/Zoe), Charley/Zoe/Eight
Summary: The Doctor dances with an old friend, while Charley dances with a new one.
Beta: Many thanks to agapi42 and ponygirl72 for their excellent help :o)
oOoOoOo
It’s been a long time since she last waltzed. The way her dress swishes about her feet, the way they move with the music and the way he holds her securely as he leads her around the floor; it’s all so reminiscent of a hundred functions attended, somewhere back in the past that she can never return to.
It surprised her to find out that this place is not actually Earth in the 1920s, but an historical re-enactment on a colony planet. It looks so much like the England she remembers, but looking with the eyes of a time traveller, she can see the differences; how the serving staff behave, the slight discrepancies in clothing style, the intermingling of the multiracial (and occasionally subtly alien) higher classes, and the easy, carefree atmosphere that says wartime is a distant thought for anyone in the room.
She banishes all that from her head for a few moments more, concentrating on placing her feet as she is swept towards the end of the dance. The music finishes with a graceful flourish, and the dancers applaud. The Doctor claps loudly, then turns to Charley with a beaming smile.
“Enjoying yourself?”
She nods, slightly flushed from the dancing. “Getting a bit hungry, though.”
“Well, there are some delicious-looking entrées on the tables over there,” he points out. “Why don’t we have a wander over?” She grins at him, and they weave their way through the other guests, nodding and smiling as they go.
They sit with a few fancily-dressed people and the Doctor makes conversation, dropping names like hot potatoes and causing Charley to roll her eyes fondly as she sips at a glass of wine. She picks and chooses from the various small dishes, satisfying the twinges of hunger without making herself feel too heavy for dancing, while the Doctor munches happily on fancy varieties of crackers and cheese.
He’s just finished an amusing anecdote about Albert Einstein when he glances up across the room and suddenly falls silent. This attracts a few funny looks from the table, but they evidently decide to ignore the Doctor's strange behaviour, and just start up a new conversation.
When Charley asks what’s wrong, his expression is so peculiar that she can’t even read it. He shakes his head, and pushes his chair out from the table.
“I’ll be back soon,” he says quietly, and starts to cross the room. Charley almost calls after him in concern and mild indignation, but bites her tongue and just watches from a distance.
A young lad stands awkwardly at the edge of the room, apparently waiting for somebody. The Doctor approaches him and they talk for a few minutes. Charley watches with puzzled curiosity as he holds out a hand to the young man, and when the hand is tentatively taken and he is led to the dance floor, Charley finds herself astonished. Who on earth is this man who can make the Doctor behave like this? Abandoning an opportunity to talk people’s ears off, that just isn’t like him. And won’t people stare? She looks around herself worriedly, watching for anyone who might be about to shout out or cause trouble, but amazingly, nobody seems to have noticed. Not even the people around the Doctor and this mysterious man; they merely alter their steps a little to allow them room to dance.
She sees the Doctor laugh a little as his dancing partner fumbles the steps, and with a few moments of talking him through it, they reach a slightly clumsy sort of waltz. Even as she continues to stare, she finds herself smiling a little at the way they move together; awkward and shy, with a strange degree of both familiarity and uncertainty.
“They’re sweet together, aren’t they?” comes a voice from right beside her, giving her quite a start. The speaker is a fairly young, slender girl with dark hair, doll-like features, and a silvery dress that makes Charley’s eyes drift to all the curves quite of their own accord.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Jamie and your friend.”
Charley blinks at her in surprise. “I ... suppose?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” the girl says, and holds out her hand with a smile. “I’m Zoe, Zoe Heriot.”
“Charlotte Pollard. My friends call me Charley.”
“Well then, Charley -” Zoe stops mid-sentence and frowns a little. “Are you okay?”
Still rather bemused, Charley shrugs. “Everybody’s acting very strangely,” she confides.
“How so?”
“Where I come from, men don’t dance with other men without there being some kind of reac-” Now Charley stops abruptly, and feels like smacking herself in the forehead. “Oh, I’m so stupid! It’s not like that here, is it?” Zoe seems confused now, so Charley hastens to explain. “Where I’m from, it’s illegal for two men to ... well, to be ... um...”
“Homosexuality is illegal where you come from?” Zoe says, surprise very clear in her voice. Charley is extremely glad she’s extrapolated the meaning from her embarrassed mumblings. “That’s disturbing. Where are you from?”
“Hampshire, in England. On Earth,” she adds. “And also 1930.”
“Oh, you’re a time traveller! Like us!” Zoe exclaims happily.
“Are there a lot of time travellers around here?”
“Probably. It’s a very popular destination, and much more permissive than the real thing.” Her eyes widen in comprehension. “Oh, that makes sense! I understand your concern now. Don’t worry, this place is much more liberal than your own time.” She treats Charley to a warm smile, and looks back over at the Doctor and Jamie. “In fact, Jamie’s time is far less so than yours, and he’s adjusted to the future quite well. He’s from the 18th century.”
“From Scotland, I suppose?”
“Did the kilt give him away?” she replies, grinning.
“Just a little,” Charley giggles.
“Oh, the Doctor’s looking jealous,” Zoe says suddenly, and Charley looks at her in confusion. The Doctor seems perfectly fine, dancing with Jamie.
“What do you mean?”
“Over there.” She points to a man standing by the side of the dance floor, arms folded and brow furrowed crossly. “He likes Jamie very much. Tends to get a bit annoyed if someone else cuts in.”
“Wait, wait.” Charley holds up a hand, determined to get this sorted. “That’s the Doctor?” She nods towards the little man Zoe had indicated, who looks almost like a grumpy scarecrow stuffed into an evening suit. Zoe confirms with a nod. “But that’s the Doctor,” Charley says, pointing towards the dancing couple.
“So he’s a future Doctor?” Zoe gasps, putting a hand on Charley’s arm. “Wow. I’d picked up bits and pieces about him being able to change his appearance when he dies, but I’ve never seen another one of him.”
“He can do that?”
“Oh yes. Quite a useful trick, isn’t it? Especially if he’s going to go about risking his life for the rest of however many lives he gets.”
Charley thinks about that for a moment. “It would explain a lot,” she says eventually. They sit and watch the pair dance for a while, occasionally glancing over at Zoe’s Doctor to gauge how irritable he’s getting.
“Maybe this will be the catalyst,” Zoe muses.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been trying to nudge them towards each other for a while now,” she explains. “They’re surprisingly clueless sometimes.”
“You mean, you’ve been trying to pair them up?”
“They’d never get there on their own.” Zoe smiles at them, and Charley’s Doctor happens to look over at that point. The soft, unreadable expression on his face is there again, and he smiles gently over at her. Zoe gives him a little wave, and the smile broadens, lighting up his eyes. “I think he knows that I know,” she says to Charley, who nods in agreement.
“Does Jamie know, do you think?”
“I can’t tell.”
The music draws to a close, and the dancers applaud again. The Doctor and Jamie remain on the floor, talking, and when the violinists strike up again, Jamie offers his hand. With a delighted smile, the Doctor takes it, and they move into the next dance with a little more confidence than the last.
Zoe stands and turns to Charley. “Would you like to dance?” she asks.
Charley looks up in surprise. “What time are you from?” she asks, grinning slightly. She finds herself oddly drawn to the idea, and Zoe certainly looks like she’d be a fun dancing partner.
“About a hundred years after you,” she replies. “Don’t you want to?”
Charley laughs at her own apparently outdated preconceptions, and follows Zoe to the dance floor. A problem immediately presents itself, one that has both girls giggling as they try to sort out hand placements.
“Okay, do you want to lead or shall I?” Zoe laughs.
“You lead,” Charley tells her. “I’ve not had much practice at it.”
So they dance to the music, not attracting even the slightest of stares from their fellow dancers, and Charley finds herself quite comfortable in Zoe’s hands. The one she holds in her own is slim and soft, and the one resting on her waist is small and warm. Although Zoe is slightly smaller than herself, it doesn’t feel odd to be dancing with her. In fact, it feels quite wonderful.
When this dance ends, Zoe gives Charley a radiant smile, and kisses her cheek. She feels herself blush, and Zoe giggles at her. She looks across the room, and sees that the Doctor is holding Jamie’s hands in front of him and saying something to him with an earnest expression.
“What’s he saying?” she wonders, and Zoe shakes her head a little.
“I can’t make it out,” she replies. “But Jamie looks as if - oh!”
Charley’s mouth drops open in surprise as she sees the Doctor dip his head and kiss Jamie. Zoe’s reaction is much the same, only with more of a delighted smile to it. Jamie kisses back hesitantly, and there is a sudden harrumphing noise from the other side of the room. Zoe’s Doctor is crossly making his way over to them, and by the time he reaches them, Charley’s Doctor is just letting Jamie go. He puts a hand to Jamie’s cheek and smiles, then turns to his former self and raises a half-amused eyebrow at him.
Zoe and Charley can’t make out what’s being said, but the smaller Doctor seems rather disgruntled, while the other is calm and reasonable. Zoe’s Doctor eventually rolls his eyes and concedes to whatever point Charley’s had been making, then takes Jamie by the hand and leads him away rather huffily. Jamie gives his dancing partner a funny sort of smile, then allows himself to be pulled to the side of the room.
As more music begins, Zoe and Charley move to the seating area so they have a little more space to talk.
“Well, that was very dramatic.”
“The Doctor’s just the sort to get into arguments with himself, don’t you think?” Zoe giggles, and Charley finds it infectious.
“Oh, I’m exactly that sort,” says the Doctor, appearing next to them with a smile. “Happens every time. Zoe!” He sweeps her up and spins her around in a hug, beaming happily. Zoe laughs until she is put down again, and then squeezes the Doctor tightly.
“Oh, Zoe, it’s so very good to see you!”
“You look very different,” she tells him.
“Good different?”
Zoe nods, grinning cheekily, and the Doctor laughs. He hugs her again, pressing an exuberant kiss to her cheek.
“You and Charley have been getting along, then? I saw you two dancing.” Charley blushes again, without knowing exactly why. This party is getting rather confusing.
“She’s a very good dancer, yes,” Zoe says, a strange twinkle in her eye as she gives Charley a sideways smile. The Doctor laughs, and puts an arm around Charley’s shoulders to give her an affectionate squeeze. “Do you remember how long we stay, Doctor?”
His face falls suddenly, and he avoids her eyes. “You know better than to ask me that, Zoe.”
She frowns, then laughs gently. “I mean here, at the party.” He brightens again, smiling with relief. “I know we have to leave you at some point, but I have no desire to find out when or why.”
“Well, that’s good to know. As for this party, I think you’ll be able to stick around for a while yet. If I remember rightly...” He nods over in the direction of the far wall, and the girls turn to look.
Zoe’s Doctor is pressed back against the wall, holding Jamie tightly around the waist. Jamie’s hands are between the two of them, clutching at the lapels of the Doctor’s suit, as they proceed to ignore the entire room in favour of each other.
Charley watches them in curious fascination, never having seen men kiss quite like that before. Next to her, Zoe makes a small noise of excitement and squeezes the Doctor’s arm. The Doctor is staring over at himself and Jamie with an odd smile, lost in nostalgic memories.
“Oh, that’s brilliant!” Zoe enthuses, almost bouncing on the spot. “Finally!” she adds, giving the Doctor a friendly push.
“Hey, I did that centuries ago!” he laughs. Then he nudges Zoe and murmurs something in her ear. She raises an eyebrow at him.
“Really?” He nods, and she grins widely.
“Give us a few days, though.”
“Well, naturally.”
Charley looks between the two of them in puzzlement. “What?” she demands after a few moments of knowing looks.
“Oh, it’s nothing, Charley,” the Doctor tells her. “I’ll explain later.” She folds her arms and narrows her eyes at him in a slightly teasing manner, but he just raises his eyebrows in an irritatingly enigmatic way. She gives up and laughs; she’ll just have to get it out of him later.
“Either of you up for another dance?” he asks, one hand held out between them.
Charley reaches for Zoe’s hand instead. “Actually, Doctor, I think I’d rather dance with Zoe again.” She gives him a cheeky smile, and he waves them on with a grin.
She attempts to lead this time, and she and Zoe end up nearly falling over each other’s feet, giggling together as they try to keep tempo. When they finally get into some kind of pattern, Zoe breaks her concentration spectacularly by reaching up and kissing her. Charley stumbles to a halt in the middle of the floor, unable to keep dancing, unable to even think straight as Zoe presses her lips to hers, a small, soft hand at the nape of her neck.
Zoe pulls away, smiling warmly at her, but falters slightly at Charley’s shocked face. Her cheeks have become very hot, and her stomach feels like there’s a hundred butterflies in it, but when Zoe moves back a little and drops her hand from Charley’s neck, it’s a strange and sudden impulse that makes her grab at the hand and hold it tightly in the small space between them.
She inches forward, her mouth tingling with the memory of the touch. Zoe cocks her head a little, the smile spreading back across her face, and nudges gently at Charley’s nose with her own before kissing her again.
Realising they are in the way of other dancers, Zoe pulls Charley to the edge of the floor and continues kissing her against the wall, one hand soft at the side of her face and the other around her waist. It’s almost like a waltz, except they aren’t moving.
A pointed throat-clearing from very close by makes them both jump, and they break apart, flushed and grinning foolishly. The Doctor is leaning against the wall next to them, one eyebrow quirked and a smirk on his face.
“This may not be the real 1920s,” he tells them, “but public displays of affection to this degree are still a little out of place.”
“If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black!” Charley laughs, more embarrassed than she cares to admit. But when she points over to where Jamie and the other Doctor were seen last, she finds that they’re nowhere in sight.
“Oh, they left,” the Doctor says casually. Zoe frowns worriedly, and he clarifies, “Just to the TARDIS. They’ll be back. In a while, anyway.” A secret smile crosses his face at the memory, before he looks fondly at her. “I wouldn’t leave you behind, Zoe, you know that.”
She smiles brightly at him, then moves over and stretches up to whisper in his ear.
“Would you two stop doing that?” Charley protests, feeling an inexplicable nervous giggle trying to rise up through the indignation as Zoe looks at her from the corner of her eye as she whispers.
The Doctor gives Zoe a look of surprise, then glances over at Charley with a doubtful expression.
“What? What?” Charley puts her hands on her hips, noting with mild surprise that her dress emphasises certain things quite impressively when she does that.
Zoe grins at the Doctor, who rolls his eyes at her very affectionately. “Can but ask,” he says cryptically, and Charley is about to demand another insistent ‘what?’, when Zoe grabs her by the hand and pulls her close to whisper in her ear.
Charley’s eyes widen at the suggestion, and the butterflies in her stomach start doing some sort of synchronised flight display. She’s certainly never done that before, not even close, and the panic must show on her face because Zoe says quickly, “Only if you want to. And we have all the time in the world.”
Charley bites her lip, thinking it over. On the one hand, brand new out-of-her-depth experience. On the other, it’s this amazing girl who makes her head spin, and the Doctor.
If there’s one thing she’s learned from this wonderful life of theirs, it’s that you’ll get nowhere if you don’t take chances once in a while. With this thought prevalent in her mind and her heart going double-time with nerves, she smiles at them, and nods. Zoe grins happily, and the Doctor reaches out for their other hands.
He beams at them both, giving Charley’s hand an extra squeeze. “Back to the TARDIS?”
oOoOoOo
Epilogue
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: None
Words: ~3000
Characters/Pairings: Charley/Zoe, Eight/Jamie, Two/Jamie(/Zoe), Charley/Zoe/Eight
Summary: The Doctor dances with an old friend, while Charley dances with a new one.
Beta: Many thanks to agapi42 and ponygirl72 for their excellent help :o)
oOoOoOo
It’s been a long time since she last waltzed. The way her dress swishes about her feet, the way they move with the music and the way he holds her securely as he leads her around the floor; it’s all so reminiscent of a hundred functions attended, somewhere back in the past that she can never return to.
It surprised her to find out that this place is not actually Earth in the 1920s, but an historical re-enactment on a colony planet. It looks so much like the England she remembers, but looking with the eyes of a time traveller, she can see the differences; how the serving staff behave, the slight discrepancies in clothing style, the intermingling of the multiracial (and occasionally subtly alien) higher classes, and the easy, carefree atmosphere that says wartime is a distant thought for anyone in the room.
She banishes all that from her head for a few moments more, concentrating on placing her feet as she is swept towards the end of the dance. The music finishes with a graceful flourish, and the dancers applaud. The Doctor claps loudly, then turns to Charley with a beaming smile.
“Enjoying yourself?”
She nods, slightly flushed from the dancing. “Getting a bit hungry, though.”
“Well, there are some delicious-looking entrées on the tables over there,” he points out. “Why don’t we have a wander over?” She grins at him, and they weave their way through the other guests, nodding and smiling as they go.
They sit with a few fancily-dressed people and the Doctor makes conversation, dropping names like hot potatoes and causing Charley to roll her eyes fondly as she sips at a glass of wine. She picks and chooses from the various small dishes, satisfying the twinges of hunger without making herself feel too heavy for dancing, while the Doctor munches happily on fancy varieties of crackers and cheese.
He’s just finished an amusing anecdote about Albert Einstein when he glances up across the room and suddenly falls silent. This attracts a few funny looks from the table, but they evidently decide to ignore the Doctor's strange behaviour, and just start up a new conversation.
When Charley asks what’s wrong, his expression is so peculiar that she can’t even read it. He shakes his head, and pushes his chair out from the table.
“I’ll be back soon,” he says quietly, and starts to cross the room. Charley almost calls after him in concern and mild indignation, but bites her tongue and just watches from a distance.
A young lad stands awkwardly at the edge of the room, apparently waiting for somebody. The Doctor approaches him and they talk for a few minutes. Charley watches with puzzled curiosity as he holds out a hand to the young man, and when the hand is tentatively taken and he is led to the dance floor, Charley finds herself astonished. Who on earth is this man who can make the Doctor behave like this? Abandoning an opportunity to talk people’s ears off, that just isn’t like him. And won’t people stare? She looks around herself worriedly, watching for anyone who might be about to shout out or cause trouble, but amazingly, nobody seems to have noticed. Not even the people around the Doctor and this mysterious man; they merely alter their steps a little to allow them room to dance.
She sees the Doctor laugh a little as his dancing partner fumbles the steps, and with a few moments of talking him through it, they reach a slightly clumsy sort of waltz. Even as she continues to stare, she finds herself smiling a little at the way they move together; awkward and shy, with a strange degree of both familiarity and uncertainty.
“They’re sweet together, aren’t they?” comes a voice from right beside her, giving her quite a start. The speaker is a fairly young, slender girl with dark hair, doll-like features, and a silvery dress that makes Charley’s eyes drift to all the curves quite of their own accord.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Jamie and your friend.”
Charley blinks at her in surprise. “I ... suppose?”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” the girl says, and holds out her hand with a smile. “I’m Zoe, Zoe Heriot.”
“Charlotte Pollard. My friends call me Charley.”
“Well then, Charley -” Zoe stops mid-sentence and frowns a little. “Are you okay?”
Still rather bemused, Charley shrugs. “Everybody’s acting very strangely,” she confides.
“How so?”
“Where I come from, men don’t dance with other men without there being some kind of reac-” Now Charley stops abruptly, and feels like smacking herself in the forehead. “Oh, I’m so stupid! It’s not like that here, is it?” Zoe seems confused now, so Charley hastens to explain. “Where I’m from, it’s illegal for two men to ... well, to be ... um...”
“Homosexuality is illegal where you come from?” Zoe says, surprise very clear in her voice. Charley is extremely glad she’s extrapolated the meaning from her embarrassed mumblings. “That’s disturbing. Where are you from?”
“Hampshire, in England. On Earth,” she adds. “And also 1930.”
“Oh, you’re a time traveller! Like us!” Zoe exclaims happily.
“Are there a lot of time travellers around here?”
“Probably. It’s a very popular destination, and much more permissive than the real thing.” Her eyes widen in comprehension. “Oh, that makes sense! I understand your concern now. Don’t worry, this place is much more liberal than your own time.” She treats Charley to a warm smile, and looks back over at the Doctor and Jamie. “In fact, Jamie’s time is far less so than yours, and he’s adjusted to the future quite well. He’s from the 18th century.”
“From Scotland, I suppose?”
“Did the kilt give him away?” she replies, grinning.
“Just a little,” Charley giggles.
“Oh, the Doctor’s looking jealous,” Zoe says suddenly, and Charley looks at her in confusion. The Doctor seems perfectly fine, dancing with Jamie.
“What do you mean?”
“Over there.” She points to a man standing by the side of the dance floor, arms folded and brow furrowed crossly. “He likes Jamie very much. Tends to get a bit annoyed if someone else cuts in.”
“Wait, wait.” Charley holds up a hand, determined to get this sorted. “That’s the Doctor?” She nods towards the little man Zoe had indicated, who looks almost like a grumpy scarecrow stuffed into an evening suit. Zoe confirms with a nod. “But that’s the Doctor,” Charley says, pointing towards the dancing couple.
“So he’s a future Doctor?” Zoe gasps, putting a hand on Charley’s arm. “Wow. I’d picked up bits and pieces about him being able to change his appearance when he dies, but I’ve never seen another one of him.”
“He can do that?”
“Oh yes. Quite a useful trick, isn’t it? Especially if he’s going to go about risking his life for the rest of however many lives he gets.”
Charley thinks about that for a moment. “It would explain a lot,” she says eventually. They sit and watch the pair dance for a while, occasionally glancing over at Zoe’s Doctor to gauge how irritable he’s getting.
“Maybe this will be the catalyst,” Zoe muses.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been trying to nudge them towards each other for a while now,” she explains. “They’re surprisingly clueless sometimes.”
“You mean, you’ve been trying to pair them up?”
“They’d never get there on their own.” Zoe smiles at them, and Charley’s Doctor happens to look over at that point. The soft, unreadable expression on his face is there again, and he smiles gently over at her. Zoe gives him a little wave, and the smile broadens, lighting up his eyes. “I think he knows that I know,” she says to Charley, who nods in agreement.
“Does Jamie know, do you think?”
“I can’t tell.”
The music draws to a close, and the dancers applaud again. The Doctor and Jamie remain on the floor, talking, and when the violinists strike up again, Jamie offers his hand. With a delighted smile, the Doctor takes it, and they move into the next dance with a little more confidence than the last.
Zoe stands and turns to Charley. “Would you like to dance?” she asks.
Charley looks up in surprise. “What time are you from?” she asks, grinning slightly. She finds herself oddly drawn to the idea, and Zoe certainly looks like she’d be a fun dancing partner.
“About a hundred years after you,” she replies. “Don’t you want to?”
Charley laughs at her own apparently outdated preconceptions, and follows Zoe to the dance floor. A problem immediately presents itself, one that has both girls giggling as they try to sort out hand placements.
“Okay, do you want to lead or shall I?” Zoe laughs.
“You lead,” Charley tells her. “I’ve not had much practice at it.”
So they dance to the music, not attracting even the slightest of stares from their fellow dancers, and Charley finds herself quite comfortable in Zoe’s hands. The one she holds in her own is slim and soft, and the one resting on her waist is small and warm. Although Zoe is slightly smaller than herself, it doesn’t feel odd to be dancing with her. In fact, it feels quite wonderful.
When this dance ends, Zoe gives Charley a radiant smile, and kisses her cheek. She feels herself blush, and Zoe giggles at her. She looks across the room, and sees that the Doctor is holding Jamie’s hands in front of him and saying something to him with an earnest expression.
“What’s he saying?” she wonders, and Zoe shakes her head a little.
“I can’t make it out,” she replies. “But Jamie looks as if - oh!”
Charley’s mouth drops open in surprise as she sees the Doctor dip his head and kiss Jamie. Zoe’s reaction is much the same, only with more of a delighted smile to it. Jamie kisses back hesitantly, and there is a sudden harrumphing noise from the other side of the room. Zoe’s Doctor is crossly making his way over to them, and by the time he reaches them, Charley’s Doctor is just letting Jamie go. He puts a hand to Jamie’s cheek and smiles, then turns to his former self and raises a half-amused eyebrow at him.
Zoe and Charley can’t make out what’s being said, but the smaller Doctor seems rather disgruntled, while the other is calm and reasonable. Zoe’s Doctor eventually rolls his eyes and concedes to whatever point Charley’s had been making, then takes Jamie by the hand and leads him away rather huffily. Jamie gives his dancing partner a funny sort of smile, then allows himself to be pulled to the side of the room.
As more music begins, Zoe and Charley move to the seating area so they have a little more space to talk.
“Well, that was very dramatic.”
“The Doctor’s just the sort to get into arguments with himself, don’t you think?” Zoe giggles, and Charley finds it infectious.
“Oh, I’m exactly that sort,” says the Doctor, appearing next to them with a smile. “Happens every time. Zoe!” He sweeps her up and spins her around in a hug, beaming happily. Zoe laughs until she is put down again, and then squeezes the Doctor tightly.
“Oh, Zoe, it’s so very good to see you!”
“You look very different,” she tells him.
“Good different?”
Zoe nods, grinning cheekily, and the Doctor laughs. He hugs her again, pressing an exuberant kiss to her cheek.
“You and Charley have been getting along, then? I saw you two dancing.” Charley blushes again, without knowing exactly why. This party is getting rather confusing.
“She’s a very good dancer, yes,” Zoe says, a strange twinkle in her eye as she gives Charley a sideways smile. The Doctor laughs, and puts an arm around Charley’s shoulders to give her an affectionate squeeze. “Do you remember how long we stay, Doctor?”
His face falls suddenly, and he avoids her eyes. “You know better than to ask me that, Zoe.”
She frowns, then laughs gently. “I mean here, at the party.” He brightens again, smiling with relief. “I know we have to leave you at some point, but I have no desire to find out when or why.”
“Well, that’s good to know. As for this party, I think you’ll be able to stick around for a while yet. If I remember rightly...” He nods over in the direction of the far wall, and the girls turn to look.
Zoe’s Doctor is pressed back against the wall, holding Jamie tightly around the waist. Jamie’s hands are between the two of them, clutching at the lapels of the Doctor’s suit, as they proceed to ignore the entire room in favour of each other.
Charley watches them in curious fascination, never having seen men kiss quite like that before. Next to her, Zoe makes a small noise of excitement and squeezes the Doctor’s arm. The Doctor is staring over at himself and Jamie with an odd smile, lost in nostalgic memories.
“Oh, that’s brilliant!” Zoe enthuses, almost bouncing on the spot. “Finally!” she adds, giving the Doctor a friendly push.
“Hey, I did that centuries ago!” he laughs. Then he nudges Zoe and murmurs something in her ear. She raises an eyebrow at him.
“Really?” He nods, and she grins widely.
“Give us a few days, though.”
“Well, naturally.”
Charley looks between the two of them in puzzlement. “What?” she demands after a few moments of knowing looks.
“Oh, it’s nothing, Charley,” the Doctor tells her. “I’ll explain later.” She folds her arms and narrows her eyes at him in a slightly teasing manner, but he just raises his eyebrows in an irritatingly enigmatic way. She gives up and laughs; she’ll just have to get it out of him later.
“Either of you up for another dance?” he asks, one hand held out between them.
Charley reaches for Zoe’s hand instead. “Actually, Doctor, I think I’d rather dance with Zoe again.” She gives him a cheeky smile, and he waves them on with a grin.
She attempts to lead this time, and she and Zoe end up nearly falling over each other’s feet, giggling together as they try to keep tempo. When they finally get into some kind of pattern, Zoe breaks her concentration spectacularly by reaching up and kissing her. Charley stumbles to a halt in the middle of the floor, unable to keep dancing, unable to even think straight as Zoe presses her lips to hers, a small, soft hand at the nape of her neck.
Zoe pulls away, smiling warmly at her, but falters slightly at Charley’s shocked face. Her cheeks have become very hot, and her stomach feels like there’s a hundred butterflies in it, but when Zoe moves back a little and drops her hand from Charley’s neck, it’s a strange and sudden impulse that makes her grab at the hand and hold it tightly in the small space between them.
She inches forward, her mouth tingling with the memory of the touch. Zoe cocks her head a little, the smile spreading back across her face, and nudges gently at Charley’s nose with her own before kissing her again.
Realising they are in the way of other dancers, Zoe pulls Charley to the edge of the floor and continues kissing her against the wall, one hand soft at the side of her face and the other around her waist. It’s almost like a waltz, except they aren’t moving.
A pointed throat-clearing from very close by makes them both jump, and they break apart, flushed and grinning foolishly. The Doctor is leaning against the wall next to them, one eyebrow quirked and a smirk on his face.
“This may not be the real 1920s,” he tells them, “but public displays of affection to this degree are still a little out of place.”
“If that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black!” Charley laughs, more embarrassed than she cares to admit. But when she points over to where Jamie and the other Doctor were seen last, she finds that they’re nowhere in sight.
“Oh, they left,” the Doctor says casually. Zoe frowns worriedly, and he clarifies, “Just to the TARDIS. They’ll be back. In a while, anyway.” A secret smile crosses his face at the memory, before he looks fondly at her. “I wouldn’t leave you behind, Zoe, you know that.”
She smiles brightly at him, then moves over and stretches up to whisper in his ear.
“Would you two stop doing that?” Charley protests, feeling an inexplicable nervous giggle trying to rise up through the indignation as Zoe looks at her from the corner of her eye as she whispers.
The Doctor gives Zoe a look of surprise, then glances over at Charley with a doubtful expression.
“What? What?” Charley puts her hands on her hips, noting with mild surprise that her dress emphasises certain things quite impressively when she does that.
Zoe grins at the Doctor, who rolls his eyes at her very affectionately. “Can but ask,” he says cryptically, and Charley is about to demand another insistent ‘what?’, when Zoe grabs her by the hand and pulls her close to whisper in her ear.
Charley’s eyes widen at the suggestion, and the butterflies in her stomach start doing some sort of synchronised flight display. She’s certainly never done that before, not even close, and the panic must show on her face because Zoe says quickly, “Only if you want to. And we have all the time in the world.”
Charley bites her lip, thinking it over. On the one hand, brand new out-of-her-depth experience. On the other, it’s this amazing girl who makes her head spin, and the Doctor.
If there’s one thing she’s learned from this wonderful life of theirs, it’s that you’ll get nowhere if you don’t take chances once in a while. With this thought prevalent in her mind and her heart going double-time with nerves, she smiles at them, and nods. Zoe grins happily, and the Doctor reaches out for their other hands.
He beams at them both, giving Charley’s hand an extra squeeze. “Back to the TARDIS?”
oOoOoOo
Epilogue