Fic: Two Coins, Silver 2/10 (Doctor Who; Realignment 'verse)
Story Title: Two Coins, Silver (2/10)
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author: butterfly
Summary: It's not exactly the honeymoon of anyone's dreams.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose; slight Doctor/other
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords". Some plot elements and lines from "The Voyage of the Damned", written by Russell T Davies.
Part One here.
Two Coins, Silver
Something had spooked Rose. Perhaps, as he'd been half-afraid of, he'd moved too quickly when he'd promised himself to her. If he were going to be fully and completely honest with himself, he was a bit spooked by that as well.
He still wasn't certain that he'd be able to keep his promise to her. Even now, everything inside him was screaming that he should go to Rose and shield her from whatever danger it was that they'd been warned about - he didn't much like the notion of people coming to her present and upsetting Rose.
Still, she'd wanted to split up. They'd done that countless times when they'd travelled together, before. One or the other of them would wander off to investigate a noise or something odd. It was... the way that things had been. Rose's independent streak had been something that he'd managed to adjust to, over time.
Of course, then he'd spent a year travelling with Martha Jones. Martha Jones had, quite possibly, been the most responsible and trustworthy companion that he'd ever had or, at least, the most dependable one since Nyssa had decided to leave him. He'd never had to worry about Martha wandering off to do something that he didn't know about or whether or not she was getting herself into danger by just... being herself.
In comparison, Rose was a bloody nuisance.
He glanced into the main hall and spotted her and his lips tightened when he noticed the way one of the men she was standing near was glancing down at the swell of her breasts rather than her face. He resolutely turned away, and noticed that something of an advert was playing on a small screen a little ways into this nook he'd found.
Max Capricorn was the owner of this line of ships, apparently. The Doctor tried to think of whether or not he'd heard the name before but it wasn't ringing any bells for him. Not that famous, then.
There was a rather tasteless lit-up display of a ship right next to the screen. In fact, once he scratched the surface, rather a lot of what was on this ship was devoid of anything resembling good taste. All of the class seemed to be a surface veneer.
The Doctor headed into the main hall, exchanging a Christmas greeting with a man in a dinner jacket. Some couples were dancing, others were eating - it was a proper party and quite crowded. Rose was still chatting with the man who'd been looking down her dress, but his gaze was on her face now, which was... something of an improvement. The Doctor wondered what Rose was telling him that had him so fascinated, but she'd wanted to do this separately and-
he wanted to respect her wishes.
As he wandered along, he overheard several conversations, and his attention was briefly caught by a dark-haired man who appeared to be doing business over the phone - the Doctor wondered whether this society had independently decided to invent a long-distance communication device that translated as a 'phone' or if it had been named that because of their apparent interest in Earth.
He noticed more of those robots done-up as angels and decided that they might be a more reliable source of information than the guests.
He was right about that. In short order, he found out that the robots were informational devices called 'Heavenly Hosts', that the ship had come from the planet Sto in order to view the more primitive culture of Earth, that Max Capricorn either failed to do enough research when naming his ships or liked to challenge fate, and that the Host appeared to be malfunctioning.
Unfortunately, the Host was dragged away by some of the ship's crew before the Doctor was able to try to fix it with his sonic screwdriver. Shame, really. It had been so helpful already. He'd had high hopes for getting more out of it. Still, what he had would probably impress Rose. Unless she'd found out something better.
She probably had. She'd probably figured out what was wrong with the ship. She was probably laughing with that man about how incredibly stupid her travelling companion was and how she really should upgrade to a better class. He would probably be willing to take off that dress of hers tonight, if she wanted.
Or, the Doctor considered, it was entirely possible that he was overreacting. She'd flirted before. Just because this was the first time he'd seen her flirt with a man since Mickey had decided to stay in Pete's World didn't mean... anything.
A sharp clatter of glass and then a raised voice drew the Doctor's attention.
The business man who'd been on the phone earlier was berating a blonde waitress for spilling on his jacket. He was really quite insufferably horrible to her, but she bore up under it with remarkable patience and endurance. Reminded him a bit of Martha. Rose, he thought, would likely have picked up the tray and smacked the man square in the face with it.
The woman had gotten down to clean up the broken glass, so the Doctor hurried over after the man had left, picking up some pieces and putting them on her tray.
“Careful,” he said, smiling at her. She was absolutely tiny - he'd noticed that when she was standing up. Her outfit was covered in ruffles - Rose might have liked it, as long as she didn't need to serve idiots drinks while she was wearing it. “There we go.”
“Thank you, sir, I can manage,” she said, looking down at the broken glass, though not before he noticed that her eyes were quite a lovely light green-grey.
“I never said you couldn't,” the Doctor said. She was, after all, very obviously a tremendously capable woman. “I'm the Doctor, by the way.”
“Astrid, sir. Astrid Peth,” the waitress - Astrid - told him. She looked up to meet his eyes and smiled. She had quite delicate features, Astrid Peth.
“Nice to meet you, Astrid. Merry Christmas,” the Doctor said, finding it very easy to smile back at her.
“Merry Christmas, sir,” she said brightly and that... that wouldn't do at all.
“Just Doctor. No sir,” he corrected her.
“Enjoying the cruise?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah. I suppose,” he said. He shrugged a bit. “I don't know.”
“That doesn't sound like you're having fun,” she said.
“Well, you know how it is when you don't know anyone,” he said. She was wearing a tiny necklace around her neck, with a shiny little bob on it. In his opinion, it was prettier than the expensive and elaborate jewellery being worn by most of the passengers.
“Are you travelling alone?” she asked him.
“Oh- oh, no. I'm not, actually,” the Doctor said, not quite sure why he was stumbling over his words. “I'm here with... well, with my wife. That's her, over there with that... man. She's the one wearing that dark red gown. Rose Tyler, my wife. We only recently were married... I suppose that you could call this our honeymoon.”
“Well, that explains why I haven't seen you before and why you haven't met the rest of the guests,” Astrid said, looking over in Rose's direction. Her smile had faded slightly, which was disappointing. The glass had finally all been picked up, so they stood. “This must be your first night out of your suite.”
The Doctor hesitated for a moment before agreeing with her, distracted by the notion of spending several days and nights locked up with Rose in a private suite. He'd been thinking about spending some time alone with Rose when she'd first turned around in that dress - it delicately skimmed all her curves and he'd felt the glimmering desire to press his mouth against all of the luxurious ins and outs of her body.
“What about you?” he asked, trying to push away those dangerous thoughts. “Long way from home, planet Sto.”
“Doesn't feel that different,” she said, her light dimming further. “Spent three years working at the space port diner, travel all the way here, still waiting on tables.”
She headed off to one of those table - one that was in front of a large window to the outside view - and started picking up abandoned glasses.
“No shore leave?” he asked, glancing out at the Earth spinning below them.
“No,” she said, with a wry twist to her mouth. “We're not allowed. They can't afford the insurance. I just wanted to try it. Just once. I used to watch the ships heading out to the stars, always dreamt of...” she trailed off for a moment, staring down at the planet. “...sounds daft.”
“You dreamt of another sky,” the Doctor said. Like Rose or Martha or Susan or... himself, for that matter. Astrid was one of those people who needed to experience the universe, who yearned for it. She was wasted here, on this ship, waiting on people who didn't even deserve to look at her. Just as Rose had been wasted in that useless little shop of hers. “New sun. New air. New life. A whole universe, teeming with life. Why stand still when there's a world of life out there?”
He turned around and rested against the window sill, watching Astrid's face - she was filled with such deep longing. Oh, she couldn't stay here, trapped on this ship, trapped in this life. He wouldn't allow it. A person with such depth of emotion needed so much more.
Then she seemed to shake out of the spell, resignation filling her expression again.
“You travel a lot, you and your wife?” she asked him, with a more distant and professional smile in place.
“All the time,” he said, wondering how to get the real Astrid back, not this watered-down on-the-job version. “We never stop.”
“You must be rich,” she said, glancing around the room - glancing over at Rose who was still talking to that same man. What could possibly be so fascinating about one simple person from Sto? The Doctor was so much more intelligent and impressive and, currently, much more handsome than anyone else she could possibly wish to speak to - why didn't she see that?
“Haven't got a penny,” he said. Astrid was looking at him again like he was some inexplicable and interesting creature. She had wonderful powers of insight. It was, he thought, the perfect time to let her in on something of a truth about him. He lowered his voice and leaned in toward her. “Stowaways.”
“Both of you?” she asked, her eyes widening, her fine eyebrows lifting up. “You're kidding.”
It took a moment, but after she asked a couple more times, she seemed willing to believe him.
“But how did you get onboard?” she asked, her nose wrinkling up. It struck him as a very familiar expression but he couldn't quite place why.
“I've got this... ship,” he said. He loved this bit - her reaction was everything that he could have wished it to be - he'd definitely impressed her. “We came up here, saw the party and thought... why not?”
“I should report you,” she teased. He smiled at her and dared her to - instead, she smiled back at him. Fellow conspirators, then. Brilliant. “I'll get you a drink,” she said, voice low. “On the house.”
As she was leaving, she turned and gave him another luminous smile and he couldn't have stopped himself from grinning back for anything in the universe.
Remarkable woman.
He looked over at where Rose was and debated with himself about interrupting her conversation. It had gone on for quite a while now, after all. She was laughing lightly and though he couldn't actually hear her, he knew what she sounded like when she laughed that way. It was utterly, adorably charming. That man was, quite likely, trying to devise every possible way of keeping Rose with him for as long as possible. Hearing Rose laugh was like hearing the music of the spheres - captivating and unforgettable.
Luckily, before he did anything stupid that she might yell at him about later, he heard another kind of laughter from the other side of the room - the ugly laughter that accompanied people being right bastards. He followed the sound of that and saw a group of people laughing and looking over at a male/female couple that was sitting and eating at one of the cloth-covered tables.
“Just ignore them,” he heard the man say, and the Doctor slipped into a chair next to him.
“Something's tickled them,” the Doctor said, resting his arms on the table.
“They told us it was fancy dress,” the woman said. Her dark hair was done up high and she was wearing a purple outfit with white fringes - the man wore black with purple sashes and gold stars. All in all, they looked much more interesting and personable than the people laughing at them. “Very funny, I'm sure.”
Yes, the braying group over at the other table clearly did think that they were very clever indeed to have intentionally tricked a pair of people into doing something considered embarrassing.
“They're just picking on us because we haven't paid,” the man said, touching the woman reassuringly on the arm. He turned toward the Doctor. “We won our tickets in a competition.”
They continued on, explaining exactly what they'd done to win the tickets and, when she mentioned the show 'By the Light of the Asteroid', the Doctor remembered one particularly good run that the show had done which had involved the twins on the show discovering that one of them had an unknown biological father and the search they'd gone through to find him. Those actors had been absolutely stunning at times. Fantastic range of emotion.
“So, we're not good enough for them,” the man explained, gesturing over at the other table. “They think we should be in Steerage.”
That those people should be allowed to carry on that way did not, to the Doctor, feel right. The thought that someone should do something quickly evolved to the notion that he should do one specific thing.
A bit of a trick with the sonic screwdriver set off the champagne bottle at the other table, liberally spraying the laughing idiots, and winning him the friendship of Marvin and Foon, who seemed to be quite a lovely couple.
They chatted for a bit longer and then an announcement came over the loudspeaker regarding shore leave and Marvin and Foon happened to be in the group that was going down. When they asked if he was coming along, it was easy to say yes.
And just as they were walking over to the tour guide, they bumped into Astrid again. She had that drink for him, she told him with a wide smile, but he had a better idea. He pulled the tray out of her hands and placed it on a nearby table, herding Astrid over to the group and claiming a place for both of them with the psychic paper. She'd come all this way - she deserved to be on an alien planet.
The tour guide handed him two teleport bracelets and he held one of them up in front of Astrid.
“I'll get the sack,” she said, looking worried.
“Brand new sky,” he countered, knowing what she would do. She slipped the bracelet onto her slender wrist and activated it, while the Doctor did the same for himself.
The tour guide introduced himself as Mr. Copper and gave them a brief and intensely inaccurate version of what Christmas meant to the people on Earth. He was, apparently, an expert in 'Earthonomics'. If he was what passed for an expert, the education of Sto was poorly lacking.
When they were just about ready to go, a small red man who called himself 'Bannakaffalatta' joined the group. The Doctor opened his mouth to protest and then recalled how empty London had seemed to be when he and Rose had been down there. Bannakaffalatta might not cause a riot after all.
Sure enough, after they teleported down, the streets were eerily devoid of late-night shoppers or foolish drunks. This Christmas was easily the most peculiar he'd seen in London. No people, not anywhere.
Mr. Copper waved a credit card and warned of possible Earth dangers and he might not be wrong - this group of tourists was unlikely to be eaten or to be attacked by turkeys, but something was keeping the streets of London unnaturally empty. Perhaps he should have questioned Rose more about her mysterious friend from the future.
“It's beautiful,” Astrid said.
“Really? Do you think so? It's just a street,” the Doctor said. Not even one of the city's better streets. “The Pyramids are beautiful... the museums...”
“But it's a different planet,” she said, her boots clicking on the stone as she walked about looking enthralled. “I'm standing on a different planet. There's concrete and shops... alien shops!”
“Real alien shops!” She spun around in a circle, bouncing a bit, her arms spread outward as if to reach toward the entire city. She came right next to him and pointed upwards. “Look! No stars in the sky. And it smells. It stinks!”
Never had anyone been quite so delighted by London's stench. It was... enchanting, the way she found this tiny human street so wonderful.
“It's amazing,” she continued to gush, turning and throwing herself into his arms. She smelled of peppermint and fulfilled dreams and seemed as light as a basket of feathers. “Thank you!”
“Come on, then,” the Doctor said, looking around at the boring old London streets with a fresh eye. “Let's have a look.”
It was second nature to slip his hand into hers and tug her along.
He finally spotted someone - a man selling newspapers. He headed along in that direction, Astrid's palm warm against his.
“Hello, there!” the Doctor said, glancing about and noticing a board reading 'London deserted'. Yes, he'd noticed, thank you. “But... where's everybody gone?”
“Oooh, scared,” the man said, tapping his fingers on his tall stack of unsold newspapers.
“Right, yes,” the Doctor said, looking around a bit and sticking his hands in his pockets. “Scared of what?”
“Where've you been living?” the man asked. The Doctor wasn't sure how well 'I skipped most of the year' would go over. “London, at Christmas... not safe, is it?”
Because of aliens, the man informed them both helpfully. London had remembered the last two years quite well, apparently, and had actually learnt from their lesson. It was... a bit hopeful, really, seeing humans begin to realize that reality of alien life, though he wished that it hadn't been because of attempted invasions. This newspaper seller and the Queen were the only souls brave enough to remain in London.
And Rose's mystery woman. And, of course, anyone who was too poor to leave the city for the holiday, though they likely wouldn't be hanging around in this section of town. If Jackie had still lived here, he couldn't quite imagine her leaving. Of course, Jackie had known just who had stopped the two previous attacks at Christmas, so she'd had a bit of an edge.
Unfortunately, he couldn't do much to reassure the man that nothing would happen this year, not after being warned about something dangerous on the Titanic. He was still trying to think of something appropriate to say when he felt the teleports turn on again.
That seemed a bit fast, even for a cruise ship stop.
“I'm sorry about that,” Mr. Copper was saying. “A bit of a problem.”
Mr. Copper started collecting bracelets from the various tourists. While he was doing that, a member of crew came up to tell the group that power fluctuations had made it too dangerous for them to stay on the planet. Afraid, perhaps, that they wouldn't be able to return the guests to the ship, the Doctor guessed.
Astrid thanked him for the trip and hurried off. She might still be scared that this lot of idiots would sack her.
The Doctor went up to the crew to return his teleport bracelet and took the opportunity to ask about those fluctuations. This could be the danger that they'd been warned about.
Their answer was... less than satisfactory.
He looked around the room, hoping that they'd spent enough time separated that Rose would be all right with him joining her again. He didn't see her. That was... odd. No one else was wearing anything like her dress, so she should stand out like a bloodstain on cream carpeting.
He couldn't see the man that Rose had been talking to earlier, either. The Doctor wracked his brain, trying to pull that man's appearance back into his mind's eye - tallish, though not quite as tall as the Doctor himself. Ash-blond, wavy hair that wasn't like her type had been previously, but he had been a bit pretty. Black tie, of course, but that wasn't helpful.
Nothing. Not a sign. There were blondes all over the place and none of them was the right one.
They were both gone.
Rose was gone.
Part Three
Series Title: part of the Realignment universe
Author: butterfly
Summary: It's not exactly the honeymoon of anyone's dreams.
Pairing: Doctor/Rose; slight Doctor/other
Rating: PG-13.
Warning: AU after Doctor Who 3x13 - "Last of the Time Lords". Some plot elements and lines from "The Voyage of the Damned", written by Russell T Davies.
Part One here.
Two Coins, Silver
Something had spooked Rose. Perhaps, as he'd been half-afraid of, he'd moved too quickly when he'd promised himself to her. If he were going to be fully and completely honest with himself, he was a bit spooked by that as well.
He still wasn't certain that he'd be able to keep his promise to her. Even now, everything inside him was screaming that he should go to Rose and shield her from whatever danger it was that they'd been warned about - he didn't much like the notion of people coming to her present and upsetting Rose.
Still, she'd wanted to split up. They'd done that countless times when they'd travelled together, before. One or the other of them would wander off to investigate a noise or something odd. It was... the way that things had been. Rose's independent streak had been something that he'd managed to adjust to, over time.
Of course, then he'd spent a year travelling with Martha Jones. Martha Jones had, quite possibly, been the most responsible and trustworthy companion that he'd ever had or, at least, the most dependable one since Nyssa had decided to leave him. He'd never had to worry about Martha wandering off to do something that he didn't know about or whether or not she was getting herself into danger by just... being herself.
In comparison, Rose was a bloody nuisance.
He glanced into the main hall and spotted her and his lips tightened when he noticed the way one of the men she was standing near was glancing down at the swell of her breasts rather than her face. He resolutely turned away, and noticed that something of an advert was playing on a small screen a little ways into this nook he'd found.
Max Capricorn was the owner of this line of ships, apparently. The Doctor tried to think of whether or not he'd heard the name before but it wasn't ringing any bells for him. Not that famous, then.
There was a rather tasteless lit-up display of a ship right next to the screen. In fact, once he scratched the surface, rather a lot of what was on this ship was devoid of anything resembling good taste. All of the class seemed to be a surface veneer.
The Doctor headed into the main hall, exchanging a Christmas greeting with a man in a dinner jacket. Some couples were dancing, others were eating - it was a proper party and quite crowded. Rose was still chatting with the man who'd been looking down her dress, but his gaze was on her face now, which was... something of an improvement. The Doctor wondered what Rose was telling him that had him so fascinated, but she'd wanted to do this separately and-
he wanted to respect her wishes.
As he wandered along, he overheard several conversations, and his attention was briefly caught by a dark-haired man who appeared to be doing business over the phone - the Doctor wondered whether this society had independently decided to invent a long-distance communication device that translated as a 'phone' or if it had been named that because of their apparent interest in Earth.
He noticed more of those robots done-up as angels and decided that they might be a more reliable source of information than the guests.
He was right about that. In short order, he found out that the robots were informational devices called 'Heavenly Hosts', that the ship had come from the planet Sto in order to view the more primitive culture of Earth, that Max Capricorn either failed to do enough research when naming his ships or liked to challenge fate, and that the Host appeared to be malfunctioning.
Unfortunately, the Host was dragged away by some of the ship's crew before the Doctor was able to try to fix it with his sonic screwdriver. Shame, really. It had been so helpful already. He'd had high hopes for getting more out of it. Still, what he had would probably impress Rose. Unless she'd found out something better.
She probably had. She'd probably figured out what was wrong with the ship. She was probably laughing with that man about how incredibly stupid her travelling companion was and how she really should upgrade to a better class. He would probably be willing to take off that dress of hers tonight, if she wanted.
Or, the Doctor considered, it was entirely possible that he was overreacting. She'd flirted before. Just because this was the first time he'd seen her flirt with a man since Mickey had decided to stay in Pete's World didn't mean... anything.
A sharp clatter of glass and then a raised voice drew the Doctor's attention.
The business man who'd been on the phone earlier was berating a blonde waitress for spilling on his jacket. He was really quite insufferably horrible to her, but she bore up under it with remarkable patience and endurance. Reminded him a bit of Martha. Rose, he thought, would likely have picked up the tray and smacked the man square in the face with it.
The woman had gotten down to clean up the broken glass, so the Doctor hurried over after the man had left, picking up some pieces and putting them on her tray.
“Careful,” he said, smiling at her. She was absolutely tiny - he'd noticed that when she was standing up. Her outfit was covered in ruffles - Rose might have liked it, as long as she didn't need to serve idiots drinks while she was wearing it. “There we go.”
“Thank you, sir, I can manage,” she said, looking down at the broken glass, though not before he noticed that her eyes were quite a lovely light green-grey.
“I never said you couldn't,” the Doctor said. She was, after all, very obviously a tremendously capable woman. “I'm the Doctor, by the way.”
“Astrid, sir. Astrid Peth,” the waitress - Astrid - told him. She looked up to meet his eyes and smiled. She had quite delicate features, Astrid Peth.
“Nice to meet you, Astrid. Merry Christmas,” the Doctor said, finding it very easy to smile back at her.
“Merry Christmas, sir,” she said brightly and that... that wouldn't do at all.
“Just Doctor. No sir,” he corrected her.
“Enjoying the cruise?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah. I suppose,” he said. He shrugged a bit. “I don't know.”
“That doesn't sound like you're having fun,” she said.
“Well, you know how it is when you don't know anyone,” he said. She was wearing a tiny necklace around her neck, with a shiny little bob on it. In his opinion, it was prettier than the expensive and elaborate jewellery being worn by most of the passengers.
“Are you travelling alone?” she asked him.
“Oh- oh, no. I'm not, actually,” the Doctor said, not quite sure why he was stumbling over his words. “I'm here with... well, with my wife. That's her, over there with that... man. She's the one wearing that dark red gown. Rose Tyler, my wife. We only recently were married... I suppose that you could call this our honeymoon.”
“Well, that explains why I haven't seen you before and why you haven't met the rest of the guests,” Astrid said, looking over in Rose's direction. Her smile had faded slightly, which was disappointing. The glass had finally all been picked up, so they stood. “This must be your first night out of your suite.”
The Doctor hesitated for a moment before agreeing with her, distracted by the notion of spending several days and nights locked up with Rose in a private suite. He'd been thinking about spending some time alone with Rose when she'd first turned around in that dress - it delicately skimmed all her curves and he'd felt the glimmering desire to press his mouth against all of the luxurious ins and outs of her body.
“What about you?” he asked, trying to push away those dangerous thoughts. “Long way from home, planet Sto.”
“Doesn't feel that different,” she said, her light dimming further. “Spent three years working at the space port diner, travel all the way here, still waiting on tables.”
She headed off to one of those table - one that was in front of a large window to the outside view - and started picking up abandoned glasses.
“No shore leave?” he asked, glancing out at the Earth spinning below them.
“No,” she said, with a wry twist to her mouth. “We're not allowed. They can't afford the insurance. I just wanted to try it. Just once. I used to watch the ships heading out to the stars, always dreamt of...” she trailed off for a moment, staring down at the planet. “...sounds daft.”
“You dreamt of another sky,” the Doctor said. Like Rose or Martha or Susan or... himself, for that matter. Astrid was one of those people who needed to experience the universe, who yearned for it. She was wasted here, on this ship, waiting on people who didn't even deserve to look at her. Just as Rose had been wasted in that useless little shop of hers. “New sun. New air. New life. A whole universe, teeming with life. Why stand still when there's a world of life out there?”
He turned around and rested against the window sill, watching Astrid's face - she was filled with such deep longing. Oh, she couldn't stay here, trapped on this ship, trapped in this life. He wouldn't allow it. A person with such depth of emotion needed so much more.
Then she seemed to shake out of the spell, resignation filling her expression again.
“You travel a lot, you and your wife?” she asked him, with a more distant and professional smile in place.
“All the time,” he said, wondering how to get the real Astrid back, not this watered-down on-the-job version. “We never stop.”
“You must be rich,” she said, glancing around the room - glancing over at Rose who was still talking to that same man. What could possibly be so fascinating about one simple person from Sto? The Doctor was so much more intelligent and impressive and, currently, much more handsome than anyone else she could possibly wish to speak to - why didn't she see that?
“Haven't got a penny,” he said. Astrid was looking at him again like he was some inexplicable and interesting creature. She had wonderful powers of insight. It was, he thought, the perfect time to let her in on something of a truth about him. He lowered his voice and leaned in toward her. “Stowaways.”
“Both of you?” she asked, her eyes widening, her fine eyebrows lifting up. “You're kidding.”
It took a moment, but after she asked a couple more times, she seemed willing to believe him.
“But how did you get onboard?” she asked, her nose wrinkling up. It struck him as a very familiar expression but he couldn't quite place why.
“I've got this... ship,” he said. He loved this bit - her reaction was everything that he could have wished it to be - he'd definitely impressed her. “We came up here, saw the party and thought... why not?”
“I should report you,” she teased. He smiled at her and dared her to - instead, she smiled back at him. Fellow conspirators, then. Brilliant. “I'll get you a drink,” she said, voice low. “On the house.”
As she was leaving, she turned and gave him another luminous smile and he couldn't have stopped himself from grinning back for anything in the universe.
Remarkable woman.
He looked over at where Rose was and debated with himself about interrupting her conversation. It had gone on for quite a while now, after all. She was laughing lightly and though he couldn't actually hear her, he knew what she sounded like when she laughed that way. It was utterly, adorably charming. That man was, quite likely, trying to devise every possible way of keeping Rose with him for as long as possible. Hearing Rose laugh was like hearing the music of the spheres - captivating and unforgettable.
Luckily, before he did anything stupid that she might yell at him about later, he heard another kind of laughter from the other side of the room - the ugly laughter that accompanied people being right bastards. He followed the sound of that and saw a group of people laughing and looking over at a male/female couple that was sitting and eating at one of the cloth-covered tables.
“Just ignore them,” he heard the man say, and the Doctor slipped into a chair next to him.
“Something's tickled them,” the Doctor said, resting his arms on the table.
“They told us it was fancy dress,” the woman said. Her dark hair was done up high and she was wearing a purple outfit with white fringes - the man wore black with purple sashes and gold stars. All in all, they looked much more interesting and personable than the people laughing at them. “Very funny, I'm sure.”
Yes, the braying group over at the other table clearly did think that they were very clever indeed to have intentionally tricked a pair of people into doing something considered embarrassing.
“They're just picking on us because we haven't paid,” the man said, touching the woman reassuringly on the arm. He turned toward the Doctor. “We won our tickets in a competition.”
They continued on, explaining exactly what they'd done to win the tickets and, when she mentioned the show 'By the Light of the Asteroid', the Doctor remembered one particularly good run that the show had done which had involved the twins on the show discovering that one of them had an unknown biological father and the search they'd gone through to find him. Those actors had been absolutely stunning at times. Fantastic range of emotion.
“So, we're not good enough for them,” the man explained, gesturing over at the other table. “They think we should be in Steerage.”
That those people should be allowed to carry on that way did not, to the Doctor, feel right. The thought that someone should do something quickly evolved to the notion that he should do one specific thing.
A bit of a trick with the sonic screwdriver set off the champagne bottle at the other table, liberally spraying the laughing idiots, and winning him the friendship of Marvin and Foon, who seemed to be quite a lovely couple.
They chatted for a bit longer and then an announcement came over the loudspeaker regarding shore leave and Marvin and Foon happened to be in the group that was going down. When they asked if he was coming along, it was easy to say yes.
And just as they were walking over to the tour guide, they bumped into Astrid again. She had that drink for him, she told him with a wide smile, but he had a better idea. He pulled the tray out of her hands and placed it on a nearby table, herding Astrid over to the group and claiming a place for both of them with the psychic paper. She'd come all this way - she deserved to be on an alien planet.
The tour guide handed him two teleport bracelets and he held one of them up in front of Astrid.
“I'll get the sack,” she said, looking worried.
“Brand new sky,” he countered, knowing what she would do. She slipped the bracelet onto her slender wrist and activated it, while the Doctor did the same for himself.
The tour guide introduced himself as Mr. Copper and gave them a brief and intensely inaccurate version of what Christmas meant to the people on Earth. He was, apparently, an expert in 'Earthonomics'. If he was what passed for an expert, the education of Sto was poorly lacking.
When they were just about ready to go, a small red man who called himself 'Bannakaffalatta' joined the group. The Doctor opened his mouth to protest and then recalled how empty London had seemed to be when he and Rose had been down there. Bannakaffalatta might not cause a riot after all.
Sure enough, after they teleported down, the streets were eerily devoid of late-night shoppers or foolish drunks. This Christmas was easily the most peculiar he'd seen in London. No people, not anywhere.
Mr. Copper waved a credit card and warned of possible Earth dangers and he might not be wrong - this group of tourists was unlikely to be eaten or to be attacked by turkeys, but something was keeping the streets of London unnaturally empty. Perhaps he should have questioned Rose more about her mysterious friend from the future.
“It's beautiful,” Astrid said.
“Really? Do you think so? It's just a street,” the Doctor said. Not even one of the city's better streets. “The Pyramids are beautiful... the museums...”
“But it's a different planet,” she said, her boots clicking on the stone as she walked about looking enthralled. “I'm standing on a different planet. There's concrete and shops... alien shops!”
“Real alien shops!” She spun around in a circle, bouncing a bit, her arms spread outward as if to reach toward the entire city. She came right next to him and pointed upwards. “Look! No stars in the sky. And it smells. It stinks!”
Never had anyone been quite so delighted by London's stench. It was... enchanting, the way she found this tiny human street so wonderful.
“It's amazing,” she continued to gush, turning and throwing herself into his arms. She smelled of peppermint and fulfilled dreams and seemed as light as a basket of feathers. “Thank you!”
“Come on, then,” the Doctor said, looking around at the boring old London streets with a fresh eye. “Let's have a look.”
It was second nature to slip his hand into hers and tug her along.
He finally spotted someone - a man selling newspapers. He headed along in that direction, Astrid's palm warm against his.
“Hello, there!” the Doctor said, glancing about and noticing a board reading 'London deserted'. Yes, he'd noticed, thank you. “But... where's everybody gone?”
“Oooh, scared,” the man said, tapping his fingers on his tall stack of unsold newspapers.
“Right, yes,” the Doctor said, looking around a bit and sticking his hands in his pockets. “Scared of what?”
“Where've you been living?” the man asked. The Doctor wasn't sure how well 'I skipped most of the year' would go over. “London, at Christmas... not safe, is it?”
Because of aliens, the man informed them both helpfully. London had remembered the last two years quite well, apparently, and had actually learnt from their lesson. It was... a bit hopeful, really, seeing humans begin to realize that reality of alien life, though he wished that it hadn't been because of attempted invasions. This newspaper seller and the Queen were the only souls brave enough to remain in London.
And Rose's mystery woman. And, of course, anyone who was too poor to leave the city for the holiday, though they likely wouldn't be hanging around in this section of town. If Jackie had still lived here, he couldn't quite imagine her leaving. Of course, Jackie had known just who had stopped the two previous attacks at Christmas, so she'd had a bit of an edge.
Unfortunately, he couldn't do much to reassure the man that nothing would happen this year, not after being warned about something dangerous on the Titanic. He was still trying to think of something appropriate to say when he felt the teleports turn on again.
That seemed a bit fast, even for a cruise ship stop.
“I'm sorry about that,” Mr. Copper was saying. “A bit of a problem.”
Mr. Copper started collecting bracelets from the various tourists. While he was doing that, a member of crew came up to tell the group that power fluctuations had made it too dangerous for them to stay on the planet. Afraid, perhaps, that they wouldn't be able to return the guests to the ship, the Doctor guessed.
Astrid thanked him for the trip and hurried off. She might still be scared that this lot of idiots would sack her.
The Doctor went up to the crew to return his teleport bracelet and took the opportunity to ask about those fluctuations. This could be the danger that they'd been warned about.
Their answer was... less than satisfactory.
He looked around the room, hoping that they'd spent enough time separated that Rose would be all right with him joining her again. He didn't see her. That was... odd. No one else was wearing anything like her dress, so she should stand out like a bloodstain on cream carpeting.
He couldn't see the man that Rose had been talking to earlier, either. The Doctor wracked his brain, trying to pull that man's appearance back into his mind's eye - tallish, though not quite as tall as the Doctor himself. Ash-blond, wavy hair that wasn't like her type had been previously, but he had been a bit pretty. Black tie, of course, but that wasn't helpful.
Nothing. Not a sign. There were blondes all over the place and none of them was the right one.
They were both gone.
Rose was gone.
Part Three