Jo Grant/Harriet Jonesminerva_fanMay 20 2008, 16:22:37 UTC
Title: Incognito
There were benefits to traveling in remote areas. Beautiful scenery, lush vegetation, exotic foods. Harriet found herself relaxing for the first time in years as she watched the waterfall from her vantage point.
Jo was there, chattering on about this species and that, her legs tanned and beautiful in khaki shorts and roughed-up trainers. She knew more about the Amazon region than anyone Harriet had ever met, and wasn't shy about sharing her experiences.
A bird swooped up from the lake far below them, its cry odd and alien to her ears as it flew straight over them towards some destination they could never fathom. Jo laughed at her expression of shock, and kissed away the frown that followed. "It's okay," she murmured, nuzzling her cheek against Harriet's. "They can be a bit rowdy."
"Undoubtedly," Harriet said, hiding her smile. She was just another British tourist here. Just a middle-aged lady in sensible shoes on an ecological tour of one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
Nobody recognized her. Nobody would have cared if they had.
She kissed Jo briefly, grateful that the woman had insisted on this vacation. The only thing nicer than traveling icognito was doing so with someone you loved.
When he gets back to UNIT HQ from Llanfairfach, the first thing the Doctor does is take the TARDIS twenty years into the future - just to make sure.
Jo isn’t easy to locate, but he finds her eventually. Or rather, she finds him; he is checking Dinas Powys when she waves to him from the opposite side of the street. He barely has time to greet her before she dashes across the road and hugs him, saying “Doctor, it’s so good to see you again!”
They go back to her house, on the edges of town; she makes tea and biscuits “for old times’ sake”. He notices that there’s no one else at home.
As their tea cools on the kitchen table she tells him about everything that’s happened to her in twenty years: the expeditions to the Amazon (wonderful, just wonderful, they were just so full of life, and Doctor, you wouldn’t believe what happened that time their canoe got stuck in the middle of the river), the degree in botany (even without those A-levels), the activist life (rewarding, for the most part, and the mines did close eventually), the divorce (amicable; she still worked with Cliff sometimes), the start of her own career. She smiles and chatters just like she used to, like it really has been just a few hours since he bid her goodbye.
The Doctor is used to nonlinear time; he is used to events happening before their causes, and to watching the birth and death of worlds all in a single relative minute. But she has spent so much time living with him in his shifting chronology that to suddenly skip ahead of her feels somehow like abandoning her.
She asks him how things have been for him since he left; she seems puzzled when he says it’s been only hours. “You could have just come back the next day,” she says. “Why wait all this time?”
“I had to make sure you’d be all right, Jo.” He places one hand on her cheek, and smiles to lighten the mood. “I can’t trust just anyone with you, you know.”
She laughs, but her face falls, just a little, as she rests her hand on his. “I didn’t leave you just for him, Doctor. If that’s what you’re so worried about.”
“Oh?”
Jo looks down at the table, and her smile is a bit fainter now. “All those adventures, and all those places we went - and I wouldn’t trade them for anything, Doctor, believe me. It’s just that…we never went back.”
“What do you mean? Was there somewhere you wanted to go back to, something else you wanted to see? We could still do it.”
“No, no, that’s not it. I mean, we never went back anywhere. We never stayed. We never made sure that everything really would be all right. And, well, that’s what I’ve been doing here. The past twenty years, I’ve been staying.” She looks back up at him, and he’s suddenly and sharply aware of all those unseen years between them. “You said you couldn’t trust anyone with me. D’you trust me with me?”
Staying. Not abandoned. Not left behind. “Yes. Yes, I rather think I do.”
They spend the rest of the day reminiscing about the Axons and Daleks and Sea Devils and Draconia and Peladon (he really should go back and check that one, he thinks); it’s near midnight before she checks the time and mentions all the work she’s got to do in the morning. They both step outside to say their goodbyes and she kisses him, just once, as they stand in the night air.
“Do come back and visit anytime,” she says. “And I do mean anytime, Doctor; I’d like to remember you being here at least once before I shut this door.”
“I’ll make it my first stop, Jo.”
“Goodbye, then! ‘Till the next time - or the last time - or something!”
And the Doctor walks off, back to his TARDIS, to let the present take its course.
Of the myriad of peculiar things that happened to Sarah on a very regular basis, waking up next to a beautiful redhead was not one that she could remember occurring terribly often before. A muffled voice from the pillow beside her seemed to be bemoaning its inevitable death-by-hangover. Sarah alarmed herself by slipping into Mum-mode.
"I'll get you some paracetamol," she said, sliding out of bed and hunting around for something to wear that wasn't last night's hastily discarded knickers.
***
An indeterminate amount of time later, still feeling a bit shaky but having calmed the worst of her headache with tea and painkillers, Sarah was sitting at the kitchen table, trying to concentrate on the newspaper and being deeply thankful that Luke was staying at Clyde's until dinner time. She glanced up as Donna came in, dressed in her suit again (fantastic suit, Sarah found herself noting) and looking at bit awkward. She smelled faintly of leftover perfume, mixed with cigarettes from the pub the night before.
"Morning," she said, not quite meeting Sarah's eye.
There are some things that it's difficult to do without becoming friends, and fighting off a slimy alien menace in the local gym after both infiltrating by posing as ordinary journalists is one of them. Of course, coupling that with getting blindingly drunk afterwards and sleeping together was bound to make things a little odd, but Sarah hoped it wouldn't put too much of a strain on things.
"Good morning," she replied. "Fancy a cuppa? The kettle's just boiled."
Donna smiled gratefully, immediately more at ease. "Yeah, please!"
Sarah set the tea to brew and motioned for Donna to sit down. "So, do you have any more leads?"
"Nah, not right now. Probably a good thing, I can go home and relax a bit, have a shower. Mum'll be furious when I get there anyway. She'll think I got fired again." She fished out her teabag and sloshed in some milk. "Oh god, I just admitted that I'm living with my mum, didn't I?" She didn't wait for Sarah to reply. "It's just temporary. Till. You know, till I find him. Doesn't seem to be much point renting a flat when I don't know how long I'll be there. Not that I could afford it, anyway."
"How long have you been waiting for him?" Sarah asked gently, absently reaching out to brush a stray piece of hair away from Donna's face.
"I'm not waiting, I'm looking. It's not like I'm sitting around on my bum."
"I'm sorry. I know. And it's worth it. The things you'll see, out there..."
Donna's eyes shone. "I know. I can't wait."
"I'm just saying... if you don't find him. Or if you do and, well, one day, if you need a friend, you know where I am."
"Thanks," Donna stared at her teacup for a moment. "Anyway, I know he'll turn up one of these days. Can't resist a drama, our Martian boy."
"Tell you what. I was going to do some investigating over at Adipose Industries tomorrow, but you can take that one if you like. The kids would want to join in if I did it anyway, and they could do with a break after the last onslaught. Come up to the attic and I'll show you what I have already."
***
"If you find him. When you find him. Tell him..." Sarah paused and grinned. "Oh, you'll think of plenty of things to tell him."
Donna grinned back from partway down the drive. "Bloody right I will! Not least," she cast one last sweeping glance from Sarah's head to her boots, causing Sarah to flush pink, "because he's a complete prawn for leaving you behind!"
Requests: Jo Grant/Romana II/Sarah Jane Smith, Sarah Jane Smith/Third Doctor, River Song/Tenth Doctor
River Song/Tenth DoctorrodloxJune 14 2008, 23:42:10 UTC
Before is after After far more often than After is after After or is before Before. Concurrent existance is rare. Rarer still that they line up in memories of experiences.
For aeons, mankind assumed that we are composed of our memories, that those memories define our relationships as much as they define how we react.
River Song knew differently, but wasn't of a mind to change the mind of a species on the verge of speciating. Her job, her duty-task was to spread knowledge about ancient and bygoned peoples and ruins - this was personal, just between him and her. To do so (to blab the news out and about) wouldn't save anyone or doom anyone. Might unneccessarily complicate her love life, though. She remembered going some places with him, He remembered going some of those with her and some of other places with her; and for either to not be there was a headache at best.
So she went where she went, spoilers willing, and met him where she met him, spoilers proven.
A variable star, a pair of them more properly, brightening and dimming just peachy fine on their own, but blazing in those moments together.
Requests: Lucy Saxon/Colonel Ross Brimmicombe-Wood, Ace McShane/Private Ross Jenkins, Harriet Jones/Sergeant John Benton, Ben Jackson/Anji Kapoor
Jo Grant/Romana II/Sarah Jane SmithdoreygJune 16 2008, 21:23:23 UTC
“That was perhaps one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen anybody do” Romana muttered, dropping the gun and tugging out what looked like a cross between a test tube and a badly concealed mind control device… Which was what the sometimes lady president was definitely holding, the Doctor never had been all that good at hiding things.
“Believe me, it gets worse” Sarah groused from her position under a table, a lipstick in her hand that appeared to be faintly buzzing.
“Hey!” Jo protested, or might have protested… It came out as “huramph!” Because it is rather hard to talk with a gag in your mouth, especially when one is at the most tricky part of the escape plan.
“If I keep my body during this it’ll be a miracle” Romana growled, taking a step back and then throwing herself forward over the railings.
“We really should thank her properly for that when this is over” Sarah commented to the air.
“Durgh!” Jo agreed.
And below them Romana wondered vaguely whether the Doctor quite knew about what exactly some of his old companions were getting up to.
Requests: Lucy Saxon/John Hart, Susan Foreman/The Rani, The Rani/Romana II
Lucy Saxon/John HartrodloxJuly 26 2008, 00:55:44 UTC
She was taking a page from that Martha's book - not that there was much in the way of other options, as you couldn't exactly take your late husband's place as Prime Minister of Britain - and walking across the world. Oh how the papers and news organizations loved it, eating it all up, how the Widow Saxon had made it her mission in life to go to all the underdeveloped parts of the world.
They misunderstand, she knew: I'm not going to these places to focus world attention on poverty, though she didn't do anything to prevent that perception. I'm trying to find the right place to mourn Harry.
John Hart was traveling the world as well, trying to minimize how much he was in different eras, trying to see more and more of just what his compadre and former comrade saw and loved so much about it - sure it was the birthplace of mankind...so?
And when they met, Lucy found that she could lose herself in him...not to the depth and degree that she could with The Master, but she made do. And he wasn't about to disuade her.
-- Requests: Romana I/John Hart, John Hart/Sarah Jane Smith, Leela/John Hart
Sarah Jane Smith/Third DoctormarzipanillaMarch 21 2011, 00:22:28 UTC
Here we go again, Sarah thought glumly, doing her best not to glower at the man checking tickets. The Doctor had just handed theirs over, introducing them as Dr John Smith and Sarah Jane Smith. Every time he used that name people would smile- and immediately assume they were related.
'You have such a lovely daughter/niece!' They'd exclaim, and he'd smile thinly in return and thank them on Sarah's behalf, because half the time she was too irritated to say anything back. There had been one occasion though, when they had thought she was his grand-daughter, which had made her laugh because it offended the Doctor- 'I don't look that old by human standards, surely?' he had protested later.
The man with the ticket scanned their faces after checking them against the list.
Sarah steeled herself, waiting.
"Well Mrs. Smith, I hope you and your husband have a good time," he smiled brightly at her, handing an itinerary to the Doctor.
She froze, completely stunned.
The Doctor coughed lightly, taking the pamphlet, "yes well, come along m'dear." He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her out of the queue.
They were several feet away before Sarah regained her ability to speak. "Married! He thought..!"
"Yes Sarah, I was there."
She glared at him, catching the hidden laughter in his voice. "You think it's funny, don't you?"
"It was bound to happen sooner or later, best not let it get to you," he smiled at her.
Sarah sighed, "oh, I suppose you're right." She leaned closer to the Doctor trying to read the itinerary in his hand. Neither commented on the arm that was still around her waist. "So what's in for us tonight?"
"The first concert doesn't start for half an hour, how about a drink? Couples do that sort of thing, don't they?" The Doctor teased.
She elbowed him in the ribs, "don't push your luck," and couldn't help but add, "husband."
Requests K9 Mark IV/Mr Smith, Eleventh Doctor/Ainley!Master, Sarah Jane Smith/Yvonne Hartman
There were benefits to traveling in remote areas. Beautiful scenery, lush vegetation, exotic foods. Harriet found herself relaxing for the first time in years as she watched the waterfall from her vantage point.
Jo was there, chattering on about this species and that, her legs tanned and beautiful in khaki shorts and roughed-up trainers. She knew more about the Amazon region than anyone Harriet had ever met, and wasn't shy about sharing her experiences.
A bird swooped up from the lake far below them, its cry odd and alien to her ears as it flew straight over them towards some destination they could never fathom. Jo laughed at her expression of shock, and kissed away the frown that followed. "It's okay," she murmured, nuzzling her cheek against Harriet's. "They can be a bit rowdy."
"Undoubtedly," Harriet said, hiding her smile. She was just another British tourist here. Just a middle-aged lady in sensible shoes on an ecological tour of one of the most beautiful places on Earth.
Nobody recognized her. Nobody would have cared if they had.
She kissed Jo briefly, grateful that the woman had insisted on this vacation. The only thing nicer than traveling icognito was doing so with someone you loved.
Jo/Brig, Sarah Jane/Josh Townsend, Three/Jo
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Jo isn’t easy to locate, but he finds her eventually. Or rather, she finds him; he is checking Dinas Powys when she waves to him from the opposite side of the street. He barely has time to greet her before she dashes across the road and hugs him, saying “Doctor, it’s so good to see you again!”
They go back to her house, on the edges of town; she makes tea and biscuits “for old times’ sake”. He notices that there’s no one else at home.
As their tea cools on the kitchen table she tells him about everything that’s happened to her in twenty years: the expeditions to the Amazon (wonderful, just wonderful, they were just so full of life, and Doctor, you wouldn’t believe what happened that time their canoe got stuck in the middle of the river), the degree in botany (even without those A-levels), the activist life (rewarding, for the most part, and the mines did close eventually), the divorce (amicable; she still worked with Cliff sometimes), the start of her own career. She smiles and chatters just like she used to, like it really has been just a few hours since he bid her goodbye.
The Doctor is used to nonlinear time; he is used to events happening before their causes, and to watching the birth and death of worlds all in a single relative minute. But she has spent so much time living with him in his shifting chronology that to suddenly skip ahead of her feels somehow like abandoning her.
She asks him how things have been for him since he left; she seems puzzled when he says it’s been only hours. “You could have just come back the next day,” she says. “Why wait all this time?”
“I had to make sure you’d be all right, Jo.” He places one hand on her cheek, and smiles to lighten the mood. “I can’t trust just anyone with you, you know.”
She laughs, but her face falls, just a little, as she rests her hand on his. “I didn’t leave you just for him, Doctor. If that’s what you’re so worried about.”
“Oh?”
Jo looks down at the table, and her smile is a bit fainter now. “All those adventures, and all those places we went - and I wouldn’t trade them for anything, Doctor, believe me. It’s just that…we never went back.”
“What do you mean? Was there somewhere you wanted to go back to, something else you wanted to see? We could still do it.”
“No, no, that’s not it. I mean, we never went back anywhere. We never stayed. We never made sure that everything really would be all right. And, well, that’s what I’ve been doing here. The past twenty years, I’ve been staying.” She looks back up at him, and he’s suddenly and sharply aware of all those unseen years between them. “You said you couldn’t trust anyone with me. D’you trust me with me?”
Staying. Not abandoned. Not left behind. “Yes. Yes, I rather think I do.”
They spend the rest of the day reminiscing about the Axons and Daleks and Sea Devils and Draconia and Peladon (he really should go back and check that one, he thinks); it’s near midnight before she checks the time and mentions all the work she’s got to do in the morning. They both step outside to say their goodbyes and she kisses him, just once, as they stand in the night air.
“Do come back and visit anytime,” she says. “And I do mean anytime, Doctor; I’d like to remember you being here at least once before I shut this door.”
“I’ll make it my first stop, Jo.”
“Goodbye, then! ‘Till the next time - or the last time - or something!”
And the Doctor walks off, back to his TARDIS, to let the present take its course.
Requests: Two/Jamie, Four/Harry, Zoe/Isobel Watkins
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here they are
Prompts: Zoe/Adric, Donna/Sarah-Jane, Ace/Eight
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"I'll get you some paracetamol," she said, sliding out of bed and hunting around for something to wear that wasn't last night's hastily discarded knickers.
***
An indeterminate amount of time later, still feeling a bit shaky but having calmed the worst of her headache with tea and painkillers, Sarah was sitting at the kitchen table, trying to concentrate on the newspaper and being deeply thankful that Luke was staying at Clyde's until dinner time. She glanced up as Donna came in, dressed in her suit again (fantastic suit, Sarah found herself noting) and looking at bit awkward. She smelled faintly of leftover perfume, mixed with cigarettes from the pub the night before.
"Morning," she said, not quite meeting Sarah's eye.
There are some things that it's difficult to do without becoming friends, and fighting off a slimy alien menace in the local gym after both infiltrating by posing as ordinary journalists is one of them. Of course, coupling that with getting blindingly drunk afterwards and sleeping together was bound to make things a little odd, but Sarah hoped it wouldn't put too much of a strain on things.
"Good morning," she replied. "Fancy a cuppa? The kettle's just boiled."
Donna smiled gratefully, immediately more at ease. "Yeah, please!"
Sarah set the tea to brew and motioned for Donna to sit down. "So, do you have any more leads?"
"Nah, not right now. Probably a good thing, I can go home and relax a bit, have a shower. Mum'll be furious when I get there anyway. She'll think I got fired again." She fished out her teabag and sloshed in some milk. "Oh god, I just admitted that I'm living with my mum, didn't I?" She didn't wait for Sarah to reply. "It's just temporary. Till. You know, till I find him. Doesn't seem to be much point renting a flat when I don't know how long I'll be there. Not that I could afford it, anyway."
"How long have you been waiting for him?" Sarah asked gently, absently reaching out to brush a stray piece of hair away from Donna's face.
"I'm not waiting, I'm looking. It's not like I'm sitting around on my bum."
"I'm sorry. I know. And it's worth it. The things you'll see, out there..."
Donna's eyes shone. "I know. I can't wait."
"I'm just saying... if you don't find him. Or if you do and, well, one day, if you need a friend, you know where I am."
"Thanks," Donna stared at her teacup for a moment. "Anyway, I know he'll turn up one of these days. Can't resist a drama, our Martian boy."
"Tell you what. I was going to do some investigating over at Adipose Industries tomorrow, but you can take that one if you like. The kids would want to join in if I did it anyway, and they could do with a break after the last onslaught. Come up to the attic and I'll show you what I have already."
***
"If you find him. When you find him. Tell him..." Sarah paused and grinned. "Oh, you'll think of plenty of things to tell him."
Donna grinned back from partway down the drive. "Bloody right I will! Not least," she cast one last sweeping glance from Sarah's head to her boots, causing Sarah to flush pink, "because he's a complete prawn for leaving you behind!"
Requests: Jo Grant/Romana II/Sarah Jane Smith, Sarah Jane Smith/Third Doctor, River Song/Tenth Doctor
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For aeons, mankind assumed that we are composed of our memories, that those memories define our relationships as much as they define how we react.
River Song knew differently, but wasn't of a mind to change the mind of a species on the verge of speciating. Her job, her duty-task was to spread knowledge about ancient and bygoned peoples and ruins - this was personal, just between him and her. To do so (to blab the news out and about) wouldn't save anyone or doom anyone. Might unneccessarily complicate her love life, though. She remembered going some places with him, He remembered going some of those with her and some of other places with her; and for either to not be there was a headache at best.
So she went where she went, spoilers willing, and met him where she met him, spoilers proven.
A variable star, a pair of them more properly, brightening and dimming just peachy fine on their own, but blazing in those moments together.
Requests: Lucy Saxon/Colonel Ross Brimmicombe-Wood, Ace McShane/Private Ross Jenkins, Harriet Jones/Sergeant John Benton, Ben Jackson/Anji Kapoor
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“Believe me, it gets worse” Sarah groused from her position under a table, a lipstick in her hand that appeared to be faintly buzzing.
“Hey!” Jo protested, or might have protested… It came out as “huramph!” Because it is rather hard to talk with a gag in your mouth, especially when one is at the most tricky part of the escape plan.
“If I keep my body during this it’ll be a miracle” Romana growled, taking a step back and then throwing herself forward over the railings.
“We really should thank her properly for that when this is over” Sarah commented to the air.
“Durgh!” Jo agreed.
And below them Romana wondered vaguely whether the Doctor quite knew about what exactly some of his old companions were getting up to.
Requests: Lucy Saxon/John Hart, Susan Foreman/The Rani, The Rani/Romana II
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They misunderstand, she knew: I'm not going to these places to focus world attention on poverty, though she didn't do anything to prevent that perception. I'm trying to find the right place to mourn Harry.
John Hart was traveling the world as well, trying to minimize how much he was in different eras, trying to see more and more of just what his compadre and former comrade saw and loved so much about it - sure it was the birthplace of mankind...so?
And when they met, Lucy found that she could lose herself in him...not to the depth and degree that she could with The Master, but she made do. And he wasn't about to disuade her.
--
Requests: Romana I/John Hart, John Hart/Sarah Jane Smith, Leela/John Hart
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'You have such a lovely daughter/niece!' They'd exclaim, and he'd smile thinly in return and thank them on Sarah's behalf, because half the time she was too irritated to say anything back. There had been one occasion though, when they had thought she was his grand-daughter, which had made her laugh because it offended the Doctor- 'I don't look that old by human standards, surely?' he had protested later.
The man with the ticket scanned their faces after checking them against the list.
Sarah steeled herself, waiting.
"Well Mrs. Smith, I hope you and your husband have a good time," he smiled brightly at her, handing an itinerary to the Doctor.
She froze, completely stunned.
The Doctor coughed lightly, taking the pamphlet, "yes well, come along m'dear." He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her out of the queue.
They were several feet away before Sarah regained her ability to speak. "Married! He thought..!"
"Yes Sarah, I was there."
She glared at him, catching the hidden laughter in his voice. "You think it's funny, don't you?"
"It was bound to happen sooner or later, best not let it get to you," he smiled at her.
Sarah sighed, "oh, I suppose you're right." She leaned closer to the Doctor trying to read the itinerary in his hand. Neither commented on the arm that was still around her waist. "So what's in for us tonight?"
"The first concert doesn't start for half an hour, how about a drink? Couples do that sort of thing, don't they?" The Doctor teased.
She elbowed him in the ribs, "don't push your luck," and couldn't help but add, "husband."
Requests K9 Mark IV/Mr Smith, Eleventh Doctor/Ainley!Master, Sarah Jane Smith/Yvonne Hartman
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Eleventh Doctor/Luke Smith, Luke Smith/Rory Williams
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