Smoke and Sand 10/12
Fandoms: Darkest Night Trilogy / Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13 for some strong language
Timeline: Darkest Night Trilogy - This story is one year after the events of the last book, so everything is fair game.
Doctor Who - New Who seasons 2-4 (10th Doctor), with very heavy emphasis on Blink. However, nothing from season five.
Fandoms - In this story, the end of the second season of filming for Darkest Night takes place in October of 2009, before any information on Waters of Mars was official.
Disclaimer: The characters from the Darkest Night trilogy belong to Tanya Huff and her publisher. The 10th Doctor, Doctor Who, and related characters are all the property of their respective people. David Tennant and Matt Smith (briefly mentioned) are also not mine (more's the pity). In fact, I think the only original character disappears almost immediately. No harm is meant, nor am I making money off of this, so please don't sue. Mistakes are all my own.
I am not familiar with a lot of fanfiction sites. If you would like to link this to people whom you think would like to read it, please ask first. Otherwise, do not repost without permission.
A magic spell gone awry soon has Tony and the cast and crew at CB Productions saddled with a stranger who claims he's a Time Lord. When people start disappearing, Tony has to hope the man isn't crazy if he ever wants to see his friends again.
"What are we going to do?" Lee asked, his back pressed to the Doctor's.
"Um..." The Doctor kept staring, his mind racing. "I have nothing. You?"
"No idea."
"Maybe if you ring Tony...?"
Lee snorted. "Even if I could reach him, and I can't since cells don't work at the studio, one of us will blink before he gets here."
The Doctor frowned. "Why won't mobiles work?" he asked curiously.
"Focus, Doctor. This is not the time nor the place."
The Doctor, his eyes still focused on the angels, reached out to gently touch the TARDIS. "We'll go inside the TARDIS. They can't follow us."
"We won't be able to escape, either," Lee pointed out.
"One thing at a time.”
“Well, whatever we’re going to do, we’d better do it now. My eyes are starting to burn.”
The Doctor didn’t dare glance at the TARDIS, nor pull out the key. He couldn’t put it in a place where the angels could get to it. He just had to hope that the TARDIS would obey him and lifted a hand, glaring at the angels. He snapped his fingers and, to his great relief and delight, the door clicked open. He felt for the door and pulled it wide so that they could both walk in. “Alright. With me now.”
It would have worked, too. Everything was going smoothly until Lee stumbled over his own feet, falling against the TARDIS door. Involuntarily, he looked down to catch himself and, in a panic, tried to draw his eyes up, but he knew he would be too late. As he brought his eyes up desperately, there was a large flash, and dust blew out, getting into his eyes. He cursed, ducking his head and blinking wildly.
“Doctor!” Lee said, reaching blindly behind him for the other man.
“What did you do?” the Doctor said, sounding stunned and a little horrified.
Lee opened his mouth to answer, but apparently, he wasn’t the one the Doctor was speaking to. “I did what I had to,” Tony’s voice replied angrily. “What the hell were you thinking? Two people against four angels? How did you plan on getting the TARDIS out, exactly?”
“I would have gotten there,” the Doctor replied. “You didn’t have to kill it.”
“It was stone the moment I laid eyes on it, and you can’t kill a stone.” Hands grasped Lee’s biceps, pulling him to his feet.
“You mean I have angel dust in my eyes?” Lee muttered, blinking painfully. “Just fucking great.”
The Doctor got some water from inside the TARDIS and they helped Lee rinse his eyes clean. “What if they come back?” Lee asked as they were helping him.
“Then I’ll blow up another one,” Tony snapped. “I’m too fucking pissed to deal with them right now. Can you see?”
“Yeah,” Lee said, looking up at Tony. His lover looked as enraged as he sounded, and it was never good to anger a wizard that badly.
“Good. You two keep an eye out. I’ll get the TARDIS on the truck and we’re going back to the studio. Once there, you can deal with the hell Peter is going to throw when he sees your eyes.”
“What’s wrong with my eyes?” Lee asked, alarmed.
“You got dust in them, Lee. What do you think is wrong? They’re red as a stoplight.”
“I hardly think that’s our biggest problem right now,” the Doctor interjected.
Tony glared at him, raising a finger and pointing it in the Time Lord’s face. The Doctor raised a single eyebrow, looking at Tony expectantly, rather unimpressed.
“Don’t start with me,” Tony said, his voice low and tightly contained. “Just don’t. Now close the door so we can get the hell out of here.”
The Doctor followed Lee and Tony out of the TARDIS, watching the wizard. “And you think you’re going to move her by yourself? Just how do you plan to do that?”
Tony had walked across the room to the locked door. He shot the Doctor a dark glare, then looked at the TARDIS and raised his hand. The phone booth hovered briefly, then moved to land gently at Tony’s hand. “Magic, Doctor,” Tony said, looking at him again.
The Doctor’s eyes had widened as he watched Tony move the TARDIS. “That was… humans shouldn’t be able to do that.”
“There are a lot of things I can do that humans shouldn’t,” Tony said darkly. “Now watch for the angels.”
With the Doctor and Lee watching, Tony used his magic to maneuver the TARDIS into the back of Adam’s truck. Tony had Lee drive the car back to the studio while he drove the Doctor and the TARDIS back. The silence in the truck was thick and tense as they drove.
“You’re angry with me, aren’t you?” the Doctor said, watching him.
“Why the hell couldn’t you have waited for me?” Tony demanded.
“There was no reason to wait. We knew where the TARDIS was--”
“There was every reason to wait,” he snapped, cutting the Doctor off. He glanced sideways at the alien, who was starting to look irritated at Tony’s gall. “First of all, Lee is pretty much the equivalent of a cosmic damsel in distress. If something supernatural hits town, it always does one of two things: goes to the studio, and it threatens or possesses Lee. Those are the only two rules that everything seems to follow. I care about him, and he’s a smart guy, but that’s just the way it is.”
“He watched my back just fine, thank you,” the Doctor said crossly.
“And if he hadn’t tripped, you would have gotten into the TARDIS just fine,” Tony said wearily. “He doesn’t do it on purpose, Doctor; it just happens.” He glanced sideways at the Doctor. “You’re the only person who can get into the TARDIS, right?”
The Doctor studied him. “Yes. Why?”
“It’s a good segue into my second point. If the angels had killed you, how the hell would I have saved you or anyone else? You’re not in your world, Doctor. How would you have gotten home if you were stuck back in time without your TARDIS?”
“I would have thought of something.”
“Maybe. And maybe you have the time to sit around and wait for me to be born and arrive at this moment so that you can get back to helping me, but Amy and Kevin and Joshua Bedlam can’t wait.” He sighed, rolling his shoulders to try and relax. “I know you’re used to run-run-running, but I’ve done this before, you know. Trust me.”
“You saved reality between takes of your television show?” the Doctor asked, his tone a bit sarcastic.
“Actually, yes. I have.” Tony looked over at him. “I’m a wizard, and as much as it drives me utterly bugfuck sometimes, this is who I am and what I do. Just trust me to help you.”
“It seems to me that you should trust your partner more,” the Doctor told him.
“I trust Lee,” Tony replied. “That doesn’t change the fact that he has a metaphysical sign above his head that says ‘room for rent.'” Tony reviewed what he’d just said in his mind and winced. “And if you tell him I said that, I’ll turn you into a radish.”
The Doctor, more than anything, seemed amused. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
As expected, when Peter saw Lee’s eyes, his own widened, then narrowed, then he suddenly sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. “See what Everett can do,” he said, shooting Tony a glance that said it was all his fault.
Tony opened his mouth to protest, but then just sighed himself. Of course it was his fault. It always was. The Doctor, surprisingly, came up with a wash in the TARDIS that he promised would clear up the redness, fix any damage, and probably wouldn’t blind the actor. Just about everyone nearly had kittens at that last comment, but the solution worked perfectly. With Lee’s eyes fixed and the actor safely delivered to make up, Tony moved the TARDIS into the studio, tucking it into a small set they weren’t currently using. He shooed the Doctor inside and passed him the laptop. “Now, do that voodoo that you do and find out how to save everyone and get you home.”
“Voodoo?”
“You know what I mean,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Get to work.” He shut the door and ran off to check on Lee in makeup.
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor looked around the dim, quiet control room. He went to the consol and looked up at the time pillar. “What do you think? You have a bit of energy to spare?”
She didn’t respond, but he pulled out the laptop, booting it up and recovering the gate mock-up. He took a few wires from the monitor of the TARDIS, zapped them with his screwdriver, and inserted them into the USB drive of the laptop. He then waved the sonic screwdriver over the keyboard and the information began to download into the TARDIS. “Let’s see what we find,” he said, pulling on his glasses.
~~
Tony knocked on the TARDIS door, his head aching from the events of the morning and lack of sleep the night before. He looked around, amused that everyone in the building today, at some point, found a reason to wander by the enclosed set to see the strange blue police box sitting there. Kate had wandered by three times, to Tony’s count, and it had only been in the studio a few hours.
The door suddenly jerked open, the Doctor popping his head out. Tony frowned at noticing the dim lights and the spectacles. He hadn’t known the Doctor long, but he knew glasses meant tinkering, and he suddenly feared for his laptop.
The Doctor, upon seeing Tony, grinned broadly. “Ah! Tony! Good, good.” He grabbed the younger man’s arm and pulled him inside, shutting the door. “I managed to feed the gate schematic into the TARDIS’ databanks and we’ve been analyzing the Metacoyan theory of the fabric of reality to see if we can translate the galactical location of this world and my world to use the gate to create a bridge.” He bent over at the consol, studying the screen and the dizzying patterns laid out. The loops and swirls seemed vaguely similar to the gate schematic, but weren’t exactly it. “We just have to translate it into the pattern that you can create with your energy manipulation. By the way, I found the runes that you used to send the demons back to their level of reality and I might be able to adjust them and make them safer, if I translate them into a language that isn’t likely to send me to some planar hell.”
“Why is it so dark in here?” Tony asked, looking around.
The Doctor finally looked up at him, then at the ceiling. “Oh. She’s trying to conserve energy. Making these calculations are easy for her, but she has a very limited amount of energy to work with. She can use the remnants of the gate energy that is in the studio, but it’s better if she absorbs them from a direct source. To be honest, conserving what power she has would be the best.”
“What do you mean, a direct source? Like what?”
“Well, like a rift in time and space, such as your studio, or a source that can contain a massive amount of energy, like you,” he said, looking at Tony. “But your physiology isn’t built to manipulate the levels of energy that she would need. It would kill you.”
“I could just heal myself,” Tony said, “but let’s not anyways. We’re taking lunch. I thought I’d check to see if you were hungry.”
“Chalk,” the Doctor said.
Tony stared at him a moment, then closed his eyes. “You eat chalk?” he asked, trying to maintain patience.
“No. Well,” he said, looking off, “there’s this one planet, Tercot Six, that has a type of insect that hives in the chalk flats, and they produce -“
“Thank you for that fantastic infomercial,” Tony interrupted. “What do you want the chalk for?”
The Doctor blinked. “Draw. You know, patterns on the floor. Scribbles.” The Doctor looked at him, wide-eyed, as if it was the most natural thing to want to draw on the floor.
Tony sighed. “Yeah, sure, I’ll get you some chalk. Do you want some food as well?”
“Nope! I’m good, thanks.” He went back to studying the patterns that flickered and swirled hypnotically on the TARDIS’ screen.
Tony sighed and trotted down the TARDIS walkway, leaving the machine. He went over to the construction crew, poking around.
“Hey,” Kate said. She looked like she was nervous, but was trying to be brave to hide the fact. “Is he coming out for lunch?”
“Nope,” Tony replied. He lifted up a fresh stick of chalk. “All he wants is this.” He headed back over to the TARDIS.
“Why?” she asked, confused.
“To draw,” he called back. Under his breath, he added, “Beats the hell out of me.”
On the way back, Lee stopped him. “Listen, I’m sorry about this morning,” he said to Tony. “I shouldn’t have let him go.”
Tony shrugged a bit helplessly. “He’s the Doctor, Lee. If you can come up with a way to make him sit still for hours, you let me know. I have to get this chalk to him before he travels to Tercot Six.” He waved, hauling ass back to the TARDIS. He delivered the chalk to the Doctor, then sighed and flopped down to finally eat something.
As he was trying to quickly devour his chicken teriyaki before the Doctor decided now was the right time to save reality or Peter decided to start setting up for the next scene, Adam wandered over. The first assistant director grinned at him. “You’re going to choke on your food.”
“Then my problems will be over,” he muttered in reply.
“Only if you get Amy back on those phones, first. Listen, find Lee. We’re going to need him immediately after lunch, and we don’t want any trouble. If he gets attacked by those angels, we’ll lose the rest of the day of filming and CB will rain hell down on us all.”
“If he gets attacked by those angels, we might have to bump off James Taylor Grant. I’m still not sure how to rescue those people.”
Adam snorted. “Yeah, right. I’ve seen you take on a haunted house to save him, and if you can’t, CB will kick your ass back in time to fetch him.”
Sad, but true. Tony waved his little plastic fork. “Two bites, then I’ll fetch him.”
“One bite,” Adam said with a grin, walking away. “Time is money.”
“Give me a break,” he muttered. However, after one bite, he obediently headed out to find the actor, taking his lunch with him. He checked the table with the guest cast, but didn’t really expect to find Lee there. Taking another bite, he swung by the TARDIS, opening the door. “Hey, Doc?”
“Doctor,” the Time Lord corrected absently, studying the screen.
“Lee isn’t in here with you, is he?”
“Nope,” he replied, popping the ‘p’. The Doctor glanced at him. “If you’re trying to find him, why don’t you just ring him?”
“Because first of all, that’s not how a third assistant director gives the talent their five minute call. Second, you can’t use cell phones in the studio because not only is it unprofessional, but the remnants of the gate interfere with the connections. You can’t get a signal.”
The Doctor straightened, pulling off his glasses. “Give me your mobile.”
“I don’t have it on me.”
“Where is it?” he asked.
Tony sighed. He didn’t have time for this. He threw away his trash and showed the Doctor where his bag was. “It’s in the front pocket. I have to go find Lee.” He turned away as the Doctor fished out the phone and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Then he flipped open the phone and searched the contacts, following Tony. He lifted the phone to his ear, making everyone watch him curiously.
Lee picked up the other line with a rather hesitant, “Hello?”
“Ah, Lee! It’s the Doctor. Where are you?”
Tony stopped and turned to stare at him. “What did you do?”
“I increased the signal of your phone. You can reach any number, anytime, anywhere in the universe. Clever, yeah? Lee, where are you?”
“Great. So, if a phone goes off, we know who’s it is,” Peter said, watching them move across the sets.
“Fantastic,” Tony muttered.
“I’m outside,” Lee replied to the Doctor. “I forgot something in my motorcycle saddlebags.”
“Alone?” the Doctor said, starting to run for the door. Tony shot him a sharp look and started running himself. Several of the crew, those who usually were there when the strange things happened, abandoned their lunches and followed. Tony suspected the concern was due mostly to protecting their afternoon shooting schedule.
“I’m on my way in right--“ The line suddenly disconnected. As it happened, the Doctor threw open the door leading outside. He closed the phone in his hand and was forced out onto the pavement by the arrival of the crew behind him. They all looked around, but the only sign of Lee or the angel was the keys to the motorcycle sitting forlornly near the door. Tony picked them up, then looked around.
“They got Lee,” he said, a bit numbly.
"Raise your hand if you saw that coming," Kate muttered.
Rating: PG-13 for some strong language
Timeline: Darkest Night Trilogy - This story is one year after the events of the last book, so everything is fair game.
Doctor Who - New Who seasons 2-4 (10th Doctor), with very heavy emphasis on Blink. However, nothing from season five.
Fandoms - In this story, the end of the second season of filming for Darkest Night takes place in October of 2009, before any information on Waters of Mars was official.
Disclaimer: The characters from the Darkest Night trilogy belong to Tanya Huff and her publisher. The 10th Doctor, Doctor Who, and related characters are all the property of their respective people. David Tennant and Matt Smith (briefly mentioned) are also not mine (more's the pity). In fact, I think the only original character disappears almost immediately. No harm is meant, nor am I making money off of this, so please don't sue. Mistakes are all my own.
I am not familiar with a lot of fanfiction sites. If you would like to link this to people whom you think would like to read it, please ask first. Otherwise, do not repost without permission.
A magic spell gone awry soon has Tony and the cast and crew at CB Productions saddled with a stranger who claims he's a Time Lord. When people start disappearing, Tony has to hope the man isn't crazy if he ever wants to see his friends again.
"What are we going to do?" Lee asked, his back pressed to the Doctor's.
"Um..." The Doctor kept staring, his mind racing. "I have nothing. You?"
"No idea."
"Maybe if you ring Tony...?"
Lee snorted. "Even if I could reach him, and I can't since cells don't work at the studio, one of us will blink before he gets here."
The Doctor frowned. "Why won't mobiles work?" he asked curiously.
"Focus, Doctor. This is not the time nor the place."
The Doctor, his eyes still focused on the angels, reached out to gently touch the TARDIS. "We'll go inside the TARDIS. They can't follow us."
"We won't be able to escape, either," Lee pointed out.
"One thing at a time.”
“Well, whatever we’re going to do, we’d better do it now. My eyes are starting to burn.”
The Doctor didn’t dare glance at the TARDIS, nor pull out the key. He couldn’t put it in a place where the angels could get to it. He just had to hope that the TARDIS would obey him and lifted a hand, glaring at the angels. He snapped his fingers and, to his great relief and delight, the door clicked open. He felt for the door and pulled it wide so that they could both walk in. “Alright. With me now.”
It would have worked, too. Everything was going smoothly until Lee stumbled over his own feet, falling against the TARDIS door. Involuntarily, he looked down to catch himself and, in a panic, tried to draw his eyes up, but he knew he would be too late. As he brought his eyes up desperately, there was a large flash, and dust blew out, getting into his eyes. He cursed, ducking his head and blinking wildly.
“Doctor!” Lee said, reaching blindly behind him for the other man.
“What did you do?” the Doctor said, sounding stunned and a little horrified.
Lee opened his mouth to answer, but apparently, he wasn’t the one the Doctor was speaking to. “I did what I had to,” Tony’s voice replied angrily. “What the hell were you thinking? Two people against four angels? How did you plan on getting the TARDIS out, exactly?”
“I would have gotten there,” the Doctor replied. “You didn’t have to kill it.”
“It was stone the moment I laid eyes on it, and you can’t kill a stone.” Hands grasped Lee’s biceps, pulling him to his feet.
“You mean I have angel dust in my eyes?” Lee muttered, blinking painfully. “Just fucking great.”
The Doctor got some water from inside the TARDIS and they helped Lee rinse his eyes clean. “What if they come back?” Lee asked as they were helping him.
“Then I’ll blow up another one,” Tony snapped. “I’m too fucking pissed to deal with them right now. Can you see?”
“Yeah,” Lee said, looking up at Tony. His lover looked as enraged as he sounded, and it was never good to anger a wizard that badly.
“Good. You two keep an eye out. I’ll get the TARDIS on the truck and we’re going back to the studio. Once there, you can deal with the hell Peter is going to throw when he sees your eyes.”
“What’s wrong with my eyes?” Lee asked, alarmed.
“You got dust in them, Lee. What do you think is wrong? They’re red as a stoplight.”
“I hardly think that’s our biggest problem right now,” the Doctor interjected.
Tony glared at him, raising a finger and pointing it in the Time Lord’s face. The Doctor raised a single eyebrow, looking at Tony expectantly, rather unimpressed.
“Don’t start with me,” Tony said, his voice low and tightly contained. “Just don’t. Now close the door so we can get the hell out of here.”
The Doctor followed Lee and Tony out of the TARDIS, watching the wizard. “And you think you’re going to move her by yourself? Just how do you plan to do that?”
Tony had walked across the room to the locked door. He shot the Doctor a dark glare, then looked at the TARDIS and raised his hand. The phone booth hovered briefly, then moved to land gently at Tony’s hand. “Magic, Doctor,” Tony said, looking at him again.
The Doctor’s eyes had widened as he watched Tony move the TARDIS. “That was… humans shouldn’t be able to do that.”
“There are a lot of things I can do that humans shouldn’t,” Tony said darkly. “Now watch for the angels.”
With the Doctor and Lee watching, Tony used his magic to maneuver the TARDIS into the back of Adam’s truck. Tony had Lee drive the car back to the studio while he drove the Doctor and the TARDIS back. The silence in the truck was thick and tense as they drove.
“You’re angry with me, aren’t you?” the Doctor said, watching him.
“Why the hell couldn’t you have waited for me?” Tony demanded.
“There was no reason to wait. We knew where the TARDIS was--”
“There was every reason to wait,” he snapped, cutting the Doctor off. He glanced sideways at the alien, who was starting to look irritated at Tony’s gall. “First of all, Lee is pretty much the equivalent of a cosmic damsel in distress. If something supernatural hits town, it always does one of two things: goes to the studio, and it threatens or possesses Lee. Those are the only two rules that everything seems to follow. I care about him, and he’s a smart guy, but that’s just the way it is.”
“He watched my back just fine, thank you,” the Doctor said crossly.
“And if he hadn’t tripped, you would have gotten into the TARDIS just fine,” Tony said wearily. “He doesn’t do it on purpose, Doctor; it just happens.” He glanced sideways at the Doctor. “You’re the only person who can get into the TARDIS, right?”
The Doctor studied him. “Yes. Why?”
“It’s a good segue into my second point. If the angels had killed you, how the hell would I have saved you or anyone else? You’re not in your world, Doctor. How would you have gotten home if you were stuck back in time without your TARDIS?”
“I would have thought of something.”
“Maybe. And maybe you have the time to sit around and wait for me to be born and arrive at this moment so that you can get back to helping me, but Amy and Kevin and Joshua Bedlam can’t wait.” He sighed, rolling his shoulders to try and relax. “I know you’re used to run-run-running, but I’ve done this before, you know. Trust me.”
“You saved reality between takes of your television show?” the Doctor asked, his tone a bit sarcastic.
“Actually, yes. I have.” Tony looked over at him. “I’m a wizard, and as much as it drives me utterly bugfuck sometimes, this is who I am and what I do. Just trust me to help you.”
“It seems to me that you should trust your partner more,” the Doctor told him.
“I trust Lee,” Tony replied. “That doesn’t change the fact that he has a metaphysical sign above his head that says ‘room for rent.'” Tony reviewed what he’d just said in his mind and winced. “And if you tell him I said that, I’ll turn you into a radish.”
The Doctor, more than anything, seemed amused. “Your secret’s safe with me.”
As expected, when Peter saw Lee’s eyes, his own widened, then narrowed, then he suddenly sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. “See what Everett can do,” he said, shooting Tony a glance that said it was all his fault.
Tony opened his mouth to protest, but then just sighed himself. Of course it was his fault. It always was. The Doctor, surprisingly, came up with a wash in the TARDIS that he promised would clear up the redness, fix any damage, and probably wouldn’t blind the actor. Just about everyone nearly had kittens at that last comment, but the solution worked perfectly. With Lee’s eyes fixed and the actor safely delivered to make up, Tony moved the TARDIS into the studio, tucking it into a small set they weren’t currently using. He shooed the Doctor inside and passed him the laptop. “Now, do that voodoo that you do and find out how to save everyone and get you home.”
“Voodoo?”
“You know what I mean,” he said, rolling his eyes. “Get to work.” He shut the door and ran off to check on Lee in makeup.
Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor looked around the dim, quiet control room. He went to the consol and looked up at the time pillar. “What do you think? You have a bit of energy to spare?”
She didn’t respond, but he pulled out the laptop, booting it up and recovering the gate mock-up. He took a few wires from the monitor of the TARDIS, zapped them with his screwdriver, and inserted them into the USB drive of the laptop. He then waved the sonic screwdriver over the keyboard and the information began to download into the TARDIS. “Let’s see what we find,” he said, pulling on his glasses.
~~
Tony knocked on the TARDIS door, his head aching from the events of the morning and lack of sleep the night before. He looked around, amused that everyone in the building today, at some point, found a reason to wander by the enclosed set to see the strange blue police box sitting there. Kate had wandered by three times, to Tony’s count, and it had only been in the studio a few hours.
The door suddenly jerked open, the Doctor popping his head out. Tony frowned at noticing the dim lights and the spectacles. He hadn’t known the Doctor long, but he knew glasses meant tinkering, and he suddenly feared for his laptop.
The Doctor, upon seeing Tony, grinned broadly. “Ah! Tony! Good, good.” He grabbed the younger man’s arm and pulled him inside, shutting the door. “I managed to feed the gate schematic into the TARDIS’ databanks and we’ve been analyzing the Metacoyan theory of the fabric of reality to see if we can translate the galactical location of this world and my world to use the gate to create a bridge.” He bent over at the consol, studying the screen and the dizzying patterns laid out. The loops and swirls seemed vaguely similar to the gate schematic, but weren’t exactly it. “We just have to translate it into the pattern that you can create with your energy manipulation. By the way, I found the runes that you used to send the demons back to their level of reality and I might be able to adjust them and make them safer, if I translate them into a language that isn’t likely to send me to some planar hell.”
“Why is it so dark in here?” Tony asked, looking around.
The Doctor finally looked up at him, then at the ceiling. “Oh. She’s trying to conserve energy. Making these calculations are easy for her, but she has a very limited amount of energy to work with. She can use the remnants of the gate energy that is in the studio, but it’s better if she absorbs them from a direct source. To be honest, conserving what power she has would be the best.”
“What do you mean, a direct source? Like what?”
“Well, like a rift in time and space, such as your studio, or a source that can contain a massive amount of energy, like you,” he said, looking at Tony. “But your physiology isn’t built to manipulate the levels of energy that she would need. It would kill you.”
“I could just heal myself,” Tony said, “but let’s not anyways. We’re taking lunch. I thought I’d check to see if you were hungry.”
“Chalk,” the Doctor said.
Tony stared at him a moment, then closed his eyes. “You eat chalk?” he asked, trying to maintain patience.
“No. Well,” he said, looking off, “there’s this one planet, Tercot Six, that has a type of insect that hives in the chalk flats, and they produce -“
“Thank you for that fantastic infomercial,” Tony interrupted. “What do you want the chalk for?”
The Doctor blinked. “Draw. You know, patterns on the floor. Scribbles.” The Doctor looked at him, wide-eyed, as if it was the most natural thing to want to draw on the floor.
Tony sighed. “Yeah, sure, I’ll get you some chalk. Do you want some food as well?”
“Nope! I’m good, thanks.” He went back to studying the patterns that flickered and swirled hypnotically on the TARDIS’ screen.
Tony sighed and trotted down the TARDIS walkway, leaving the machine. He went over to the construction crew, poking around.
“Hey,” Kate said. She looked like she was nervous, but was trying to be brave to hide the fact. “Is he coming out for lunch?”
“Nope,” Tony replied. He lifted up a fresh stick of chalk. “All he wants is this.” He headed back over to the TARDIS.
“Why?” she asked, confused.
“To draw,” he called back. Under his breath, he added, “Beats the hell out of me.”
On the way back, Lee stopped him. “Listen, I’m sorry about this morning,” he said to Tony. “I shouldn’t have let him go.”
Tony shrugged a bit helplessly. “He’s the Doctor, Lee. If you can come up with a way to make him sit still for hours, you let me know. I have to get this chalk to him before he travels to Tercot Six.” He waved, hauling ass back to the TARDIS. He delivered the chalk to the Doctor, then sighed and flopped down to finally eat something.
As he was trying to quickly devour his chicken teriyaki before the Doctor decided now was the right time to save reality or Peter decided to start setting up for the next scene, Adam wandered over. The first assistant director grinned at him. “You’re going to choke on your food.”
“Then my problems will be over,” he muttered in reply.
“Only if you get Amy back on those phones, first. Listen, find Lee. We’re going to need him immediately after lunch, and we don’t want any trouble. If he gets attacked by those angels, we’ll lose the rest of the day of filming and CB will rain hell down on us all.”
“If he gets attacked by those angels, we might have to bump off James Taylor Grant. I’m still not sure how to rescue those people.”
Adam snorted. “Yeah, right. I’ve seen you take on a haunted house to save him, and if you can’t, CB will kick your ass back in time to fetch him.”
Sad, but true. Tony waved his little plastic fork. “Two bites, then I’ll fetch him.”
“One bite,” Adam said with a grin, walking away. “Time is money.”
“Give me a break,” he muttered. However, after one bite, he obediently headed out to find the actor, taking his lunch with him. He checked the table with the guest cast, but didn’t really expect to find Lee there. Taking another bite, he swung by the TARDIS, opening the door. “Hey, Doc?”
“Doctor,” the Time Lord corrected absently, studying the screen.
“Lee isn’t in here with you, is he?”
“Nope,” he replied, popping the ‘p’. The Doctor glanced at him. “If you’re trying to find him, why don’t you just ring him?”
“Because first of all, that’s not how a third assistant director gives the talent their five minute call. Second, you can’t use cell phones in the studio because not only is it unprofessional, but the remnants of the gate interfere with the connections. You can’t get a signal.”
The Doctor straightened, pulling off his glasses. “Give me your mobile.”
“I don’t have it on me.”
“Where is it?” he asked.
Tony sighed. He didn’t have time for this. He threw away his trash and showed the Doctor where his bag was. “It’s in the front pocket. I have to go find Lee.” He turned away as the Doctor fished out the phone and pulled out his sonic screwdriver. Then he flipped open the phone and searched the contacts, following Tony. He lifted the phone to his ear, making everyone watch him curiously.
Lee picked up the other line with a rather hesitant, “Hello?”
“Ah, Lee! It’s the Doctor. Where are you?”
Tony stopped and turned to stare at him. “What did you do?”
“I increased the signal of your phone. You can reach any number, anytime, anywhere in the universe. Clever, yeah? Lee, where are you?”
“Great. So, if a phone goes off, we know who’s it is,” Peter said, watching them move across the sets.
“Fantastic,” Tony muttered.
“I’m outside,” Lee replied to the Doctor. “I forgot something in my motorcycle saddlebags.”
“Alone?” the Doctor said, starting to run for the door. Tony shot him a sharp look and started running himself. Several of the crew, those who usually were there when the strange things happened, abandoned their lunches and followed. Tony suspected the concern was due mostly to protecting their afternoon shooting schedule.
“I’m on my way in right--“ The line suddenly disconnected. As it happened, the Doctor threw open the door leading outside. He closed the phone in his hand and was forced out onto the pavement by the arrival of the crew behind him. They all looked around, but the only sign of Lee or the angel was the keys to the motorcycle sitting forlornly near the door. Tony picked them up, then looked around.
“They got Lee,” he said, a bit numbly.
"Raise your hand if you saw that coming," Kate muttered.