DramaDramaDuck (RL with the Doctor- Woman Wept- Rescue)

[sky_w_diamonds]

In a side room of an abandoned building on the edge of a city Lucy Saxon didn't know the name of, she hunched further into herself, shivering as she wrapped her ratty cloak tight around her body.  It was ragged and dirty, probably one of the nastiest things Lucy had ever worn in her life, but after a day or two on Woman Wept- if that was what this

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[sky_w_diamonds]

Lucy froze when she heard the Doctor's voice, her head snapping up to look in the direction it had come from. Out in the hallway somewhere, and, from the sound of his scuffing footsteps, getting nearer. She swallowed, something unpleasantly between jubilation and fear and disbelief churning in her gut, all of it tempered by a faint, irrational irritation.

Am I supposed to answer? she thought waspishly, That'd be a touch difficult, with this thing shoved in my mouth.

But she swallowed down her ire; why should she be angry? He was here to rescue her, after all. Some of it, she imagined, was shame. How she must look; dirty and unwashed, ragged, her feet wrapped in strips of cloth because anything had been better than the bare feet Harry had dumped her here in. She exhaled shakily. No, she wasn't fool enough to miss her chance at going home merely because she was ashamed of how she looked.

Clutching her cloak tight about her thin shoulders, then, she rose, stepping out into the hallway in the direction she could hear the Doctor's voice coming from.

[timey_wimey]

As he rounded the corner, he heard a shuffling noise and came face to face with Lucy. Immediately, he felt pity. He couldn't help it. He'd never seen her look so wretched, not even during the worst of the Year That Wasn't. He wouldn't wish a fate like that on his worst enemy. And Lucy came pretty low on his list of people he liked, anyway.

"Oh, Lucy, I'm so sorry," he said, almost without thinking. Then he shook himself mentally and walked towards her. "Come on then. Let's get back to the TARDIS and get this thing off you."

[sky_w_diamonds]

Lucy bristled at the pitying look on his face, the tone of his voice. That was precisely what she hadn't wanted; she needed the Doctor's help, not his pity. It was an insult to her pride that the Doctor, of all people, should feel pity for her.

... Not that she had much in the way of pride left, though. Not realistically.

Still though, she drew herself up as straight as she could, nodding silently, and followed the Doctor back to his ship. Her fingers wound themselves into her cloak as she walked; after so many weeks feeling utterly alone, her first basic, overpowering impulse was to touch, to make sure he was actually there and solid and real. But she couldn't allow herself that. If she reached out to touch him, she was half afraid she'd end up clinging and unable to let go. And that, she'd never be able to live down.

[timey_wimey]

After getting them both safely back into the relative warmth and comfort of the TARDIS (he'd considered offering to carry her or at least let her lean on him, but decided against it - he knew her well enough to know that her pride would never let her do that), he threw his coat over the side and turned to Lucy.

"Right. Let's see what we can do about this horrible thing, then."

Carefully, he examined the back of it, quickly finding what he was looking for - a small lock. A quick blast of the sonic screwdriver soon took care of that, the lock shattering into pieces. Gently, he began to pull it off over her head, trying not to hurt her during the process.

"Watch out. Here we go."

[sky_w_diamonds]

It was so unaccustomedly warm inside the Doctor's TARDIS that Lucy actually stopped still for a moment, letting the cold slowly leech out of her. It felt incredible. Somewhat awkwardly, she tilted her head forward, baring the back of the scold's bridle to the Doctor's inquiring eyes. It was only a few moments before she heard the buzz of his sonic screwdriver, and then he was lifting the thing forward and off.

The metal plate scraped faintly against the roof of her mouth, and Lucy exhaled a soft sound of pain. It was nothing new, though; the roof of her mouth seemed to be constantly sore from the scraping and pressing of the rough-edged iron. Opening her mouth, she let go of her cloak to help pull the plate out, and then, finally, it was off.

For a moment, she just opened and closed her mouth, pressing her lips together, running her tongue over the roof of her mouth. She ran a hand through her hair, combing it down from where the bridle had rested over it, shook her head, which now felt incredibly light.

Finally, Lucy turned to the Doctor. 'Thank you,' she tried to say, but after so long not being able to talk, her voice was rough and scratched, and all that came out was a whisper that quickly descended into coughing. She grimaced, holding a hand to her throat and waiting for the coughing to subside.

'Tea?' She managed, looking inquiringly at the Doctor.

[timey_wimey]

With the thing off her head and in his hands, he wasted no time in throwing it to the floor, where it clattered against the metal grating. With that done, he looked at her anxiously as she coughed, half-hovering to lay a hand on her back, maybe, but in the end, nothing came of it.

Tea, however, was something he could certainly take care of. "Of course," he said, trying to manage a smile. "You might want to follow me to the kitchen, though. S'a bit more comfortable than in here."

[sky_w_diamonds]

Lucy gave the Doctor half a smile at his words, nodding. She didn't quite yet trust herself to speak again. Before she followed him, though, she shrugged off the dirty cloak she had been shrouded in. A necessity against the cold on Woman Wept, it was hot and, she rather suspected, starting to smell in the warmth of the TARDIS.

Underneath, if the Doctor cared to look, she looked even more wretched. Her once fine silk blouse was dirtied and wrinkled, hanging ever so slightly too loosely on her, and the skirt had a great rip up the side, almost all the way up, from where she'd torn it running from Harry. Still though, she held herself proudly as she walked after him to the kitchen.

After a moment of indecisive hovering, Lucy seated herself at the table, watching with something in between amusement and gratitude as the Doctor fussed. There were questions she might want to ask him, but still, she wasn't quite sure. It was far too complicated, really.

But it was probably best she wait for the tea anyway, so she took that excuse to be silent for the moment.

[timey_wimey]

Fussing was the word for it - the Doctor was almost dancing around the small kitchenette. He'd misplaced the tea caddy again and eventually found it hiding inside the sugar tin - how it got there, even he didn't know. Maybe Haruhi had hidden it there for a joke.

More likely, given his track record, that he had put it there himself for some unfathomable reason, but never mind, no one needed to know.

When the tea was ready, he sat down opposite Lucy and slid the hot mug across the table, placing a bowl of sugar between them.

"I wasn't sure if you took sugar, so I'll let you add your own," he commented, taking a sip of his tea. Now that he was sitting, he could actually see how wretched the poor woman looked, and he frowned slightly. "D'you want anything to eat with that?"

[sky_w_diamonds]

Two sugars she added to her tea, breathing in the scent of it as the spoon clinked against the sides of the mug. Her eyes closed in unashamed appreciation at the first sip, the tea warming her from the inside out.

She gave a weak little chuckle at the Doctor's words, and looked down at herself. 'Yes, I am rather-' she broke off, grimacing slightly, not wanting to necessarily give a word to it- 'aren't I?' Another sip of her tea, and her eyes flicked up to meet the Doctor's for a moment before she said quietly, 'That'd be lovely.'

Because food (warm, good food) was food, even if it did come from the Doctor's table.

[timey_wimey]

He nodded, and after his second sip of tea pushed his chair back, opening the nearest cupboard. Of course, he wasn't much of a cook, so he supposed that sandwiches would have to do. He just hoped that would be good enough for her, he thought wryly as he took out a loaf of white bread and bent down to get some ham out of the small fridge.

Five minutes later, he set down a plate full of reasonably tidy ham sandwiches.

"Sorry, it's not much. I never was all that much of a cook, I'm afraid."

[sky_w_diamonds]

'It's food,' Lucy said wryly, giving him a little look. 'That's quite enough, I assure you.'

And it was true. Humble and only mostly tidy though the ham sandwiches might have been, as far as Lucy was concerned at the moment, they might as well have been the finest of pheasant or pate de fois gras her mother used to serve at the horrible dinner parties she'd been so fond of. They were nourishing, that was the important part. Ham sandwiches and tea, and already she was feeling slightly less awful.

Halfway through her first sandwich, she looked curiously up at the Doctor, her eyes sharp. 'Why did you come get me?' She asked bluntly. Lucy was genuinely curious, however; she was grateful, extremely grateful, but had their positions been reversed, she would not have dreamed of doing the same for the Doctor. She didn't understand why he should've done as much for her.

[timey_wimey]

He raised his eyebrows, his mug of tea halfway to his mouth. He supposed that he should have been expecting this, but quite frankly he also thought that it would have been obvious, given that he knew for a fact she saw him as a bit of a bleeding heart.

"Lucy, you know me. I couldn't just leave you out there, not like that."

[sky_w_diamonds]

'Even despite what I've done to you... And to Harry.' It wasn't a question or clarification, though; she was just thinking out loud. Ordinarily, she would have said that made him a fool, but in this instance, she felt it would have been rather churlish to say as much. And anyway, she could hardly think him a fool when it had been for her that he'd acted.

She shook her head faintly, taking another sip of her tea. Again, she looked up as a thought occurred to her, but this time, her expression was slightly wicked. 'What did Harry do to you this time? You mentioned something about a genderswap virus...?'

Lucy was interested to hear his answer, if he'd even consent to give one, but that wasn't really the point of the question. More, it was a reason to stop thinking about why the Doctor had come to get her. That was entirely too confusing for the moment.

[timey_wimey]

His mouth set into a thin line as the question threw him back a few days. He may have rescued her, and he may be helping her, feeding her, but he was not about to divulge that bit of information. Definitely not. That was a matter between him and the Master. Above all things, he was not about to complicate it any further by allowing Lucy to gloat over it, no matter how charitable he was feeling towards her right now.

"I'd rather not talk about that, if it's all the same to you."

[sky_w_diamonds]

'Fair enough,' Lucy said mildly, returning to her tea. In any event, she imagined she could probably sort out the gist of it, given Harry's obsession with the Doctor.

She took another pensive bite of her ham sandwich before setting it down, sighing absently as she traced whorls in the wood of the tabletop with one nail. The red nail varnish was, remarkably, only somewhat chipped off. Her other arm went compulsively around her stomach, pressing just under her breasts, as though she needed confirmation that she was really there.

[timey_wimey]

Awkward question successfully avoided, he took another sip of tea, cupping his mug in both hands. Seeing her compulsive self-hugging, he frowned again, this time out of worry.

"Are you still cold?"