Title: Love Letters
Characters: 11th Doctor, Amy Pond, River Song
Rating: PG
Amy came into the console room and found the Doctor leaning against the console reading his psychic paper. His face was beet red.
"Doctor? Is something wrong?" she asked.
He jerked as if startled and quickly stuffed the psychic paper away. "What? No, nothing, what do you mean?" he asked quickly, busying himself at the console.
"It's just... You looked like there was a problem. Was somebody calling for help?"
He concentrated fiercely on his controls, very conspicuously not looking at her. "No, I was just testing... How would you like to go see the neon oceans of Celadrion?" he said in an abrupt change of topic.
Amy raised her eyebrows, but let herself be diverted. "Sure, that sounds like fun."
-
The neon oceans were amazing, like all the rainbows in the galaxy had been trapped on this one planet, in the water. Amy splashed in the waves, giggling when they coruscated from green to blue to cherry red.
She looked up, about to yell for the Doctor to join her. He was looking at his psychic paper again, frowning intently. Even from this distance she could see the flush on his neck. It must have been a long missive, he just kept reading and reading. He nibbled on his lip, flushed and focused, as intense as if it held all the secrets to the universe.
"Doctor?" Amy yelled.
He jumped and dropped the psychic paper. He stared at her guiltily. He crushed the psychic paper into the sand surreptitiously with one boot, as if he was trying to hide it from her. She grinned, "Come on in, the water's fine!" she yelled.
-
Amy stumbled her way sleepily back from the Tardis sickbay. Rainbow waters or not she'd still managed to get a sunburn, one of the banes of being a redhead. Fortunately, it wasn't the first time, and she knew which of the Tardis healing tools to use on her skin.
She heard a groan.
She stopped and looked around the corridor. She was alone. She heard a small rustling noise and tensed. The Tardis didn't have mice did it?
She zeroed in on the sound and found a door she'd never noticed before. Wary of scuttling feet, she tiptoed over and looked in. It was a small library, not more than ten feet square, with dark wood shelves loaded with books and scrolls.
The Doctor sat in a large overstuffed leather chair. He was reading his psychic paper again. He groaned as if he was in pain. She almost rushed in to help. Then she saw him shift uncomfortably in his chair.
He flung one leg over the arm of the chair, and ran his hand through his hair, gripping tightly for a moment, his eyes never leaving the paper.
Amy grinned and tiptoed away.
-
Amy skipped down the console room stairs cheerfully. "Doctor, I..."
"What?" he snapped at her. Amy jumped. He was in a horrifically bad mood if the dark-eyed look on his face was any indication.
He was lying half under the Tardis console, wires trailing all around him, bits and components scattered all across the glass floor. He didn't look like he was having a good time. His entire body was unnaturally stiff. Even his hair looked irritated.
"I was just wondering if we could go for Chinese food," Amy said softly, carefully.
"Yes, fine," he said, his jaw working as if he was more annoyed at himself than at her, trying to contain himself, but not succeeding very well. "Give me an hour or so to get this all back together."
"What's wrong with it?"
"Nothing, I just needed something to do..." He started stuffing components back into the console with more vehemence than care.
Amy gently tiptoed away. She saw the psychic paper lying on one of the Tardis chairs. Peeking over her shoulder to make sure he wasn't looking, she picked it up. She turned her back on the Doctor and opened it.
"Hello, Sweetie..."
Amy read to the end and grinned evilly. She was going to have to corner River for some girl talk. Some of that sounded quite interesting. She glanced over at the Doctor, all she could see was his legs, but even that told her he was wound as tight as a piano wire.
Poor man.
She'd have to find him some monsters to fight soon.