A/N Hey there woo hoo my first doctor who story and my first classic Doctor who adventure. I've been on a bit of a classic who marathon to the extent that I'm listening to the web of fear while watching this. Ah classic doctor who so much shippiness Ian/Barbara. Susan/David. Ben/Polly. Jamie/Victoria. Ahh so much cuteness so little time. After much consideration I've decided to do a Ben/Polly one shot because they clearly love each other but they're both so stubborn about it. This fanfic is set 13 years after the faceless ones and although I haven't read the spin off works according to the wiki they break up and marry other people but they get back together in the end and this is how I like to imagine that happened
As Polly sat in a dark table in a dark corner of the house of the rising sun. Nursing a vodka martini with a straw and a sad expression. Her friend Lydia had insisted they go out together because since they'd both recently divorced, she decided it was a time to embrace their freedom from the tyranny of marriage but as she watched Lydia flirt with anything with a pulse. She couldn't help but wish she was at home. She worried about Jamie and Michael, her two young boys. She wanted to tuck them up in bed, make a nice cup of Horlicks and watch Persuasion on the tele.
She wondered when she had gotten so old, she remembered the old days in the inferno club when she used to dance the night away. There was a dance floor in this place, but people clearly weren't drunk enough to use it yet. She loved dancing, the way she could mesmerise any man she wanted and the way she could put a smile on any of her friends faces by dragging them out to the dance floor, she'd always felt safe under those bright lights. She'd been the life and soul of the party, she had passion and excitement in her life and now here she was sitting in a pub where everyone's clearly having a good time and she can't help but be miserable.
She was about to try and find Lydia make her excuses and leave, when he saw her. She cringed but a small part of her was glad to see him.
"Hello Duchess" Ben said in that cockney accent of his.
She plastered a smile on her face "Hello Ben, what are you doing here?" She got up to hug him and he kissed her on the cheek and she couldn't help but blush slightly.
She expected him to say that he was on a shore posting and he'd be in Africa next week.
"I just bought some digs near here" he smirked proudly "thought I'd check out my local"
Polly spit out her drink. "Watch it, Duchess" Ben said laughing
"Ben, we're in Westminster, How could you possibly afford to live here"
With a twinkle in his eye, he recounted "Well you see duchess; you are now looking at port admiral Ben Jackson"
Polly was just astonished, she remembered when they were going out that his superior officer had told him flat out that he could never expect to be promoted past lieutenant and now he was an admiral.
"I'll get you another drink. It's the least I can do my lady" Ben said and went back to the bar. She was stunned. What had happened Ben had never been ambitious and he certainly never showed any interest in settling down. It seemed incomprehensible that this was the same Ben but as she looked at him, she saw the same impish smile, the same scowl as he argued with the bartender about how expensive the drinks were, he didn't even seem that much older.
"Here you go Duchess" he sat opposite her and had got a pint of Guinness even his drink hadn't changed but she could see that there were subtle differences, he carried himself differently when she'd known him, he always looked like a man with a chip on his shoulder but now he held himself in a way that demanded respect, it was a little funny and she hated to admit it, a bit sexy.
"So, how have you been?" he asked
Polly wasn't sure how to answer that. On the surface she had everything she could possibly want two beautiful children, a great job and a good if not exactly buzzing social life. She knew there was something missing from her life but she didn't feel she had to share that right now "I'm fine, I work. for the city council, I'm the business development manager" she said proudly. Polly was very proud of her job and after years of being bossed around by various managers. It was nice to have a bit of power for a change.
"So you don't make the tea anymore" he said frowning.
"No I don't" she said laughing, "I have a team of people whose job it is to get me the perfect cup of tea whenever I command it."
"That's a shame that" he said wistfully "you know I happen to believe that you make the best cup of tea in the world."
"The best cup of tea in the world" Polly smiled incredulously "I wasn't that good."
"I remember when we were going out, after travelling with the doctor and you used to make me a cup of tea every morning with just enough sugar and you let it brew perfectly not a lot of women have the patience to let it brew"
"And men do" she said incredulously.
Ben thought about this and said "Fair enough but I did miss coming back home to that cup of tea"
Polly blushed but Ben seemed to be caught up in his nostalgia. Polly remembered sitting in that kitchen with Ben as he'd read the paper and she'd make him breakfast. He used to show her the news stories that made him laugh and they'd giggle at the world. Then Ben had to go back out to seas and everyone told her that she shouldn't waste her life with a man who had no ambition and someone who was clearly not going to provide for her. They were only together for a year and he proposed to her about two months after they left the doctor but they never got married. She convinced herself she was doing it for him but she wasn't. She liked him, loved him maybe but she had to think of the future and she didn't want to tie herself to someone who was never going to earn much money and wasn't going to be around that much to help her start a family.
Ben shook his head, shaking his thoughts away, he smiled "How's your husband then"
"We're divorced" she said quietly.
"Oh I'm sorry" he said and then took a gulp of his drink.
"Go on say it" she said in a tone of resignation. "Tell me how you always knew that he was a bad one"
"I wasn't going to say that" he paused for a moment "But I always knew you were too good for him"
"You did, did you?" Polly asked curious
"Well we we're still going out when you first met him and your parents clearly wanted you to dump me and take up with him. But I never liked him."
"Well, you were jealous" Polly teased
"No I was not" Ben said petulantly "But I didn't like him, he kept looking at you like he owned you and I didn't like that not because I thought you were mine or something stupid like that but you've always been so vibrant and free, the thought of him possessing you made me sick."
"Why didn't you tell me this?" she inquired.
"We'd broken up by then and I didn't think you'd listen to me not when he had everything, a job in the city, family connections, and a nice house on the suburbs." Ben said sadly then he added "I was going to" then he stopped
"Do what?" Polly said eagerly
"No it's stupid" he said taking another drink.
"Ben" she gave him a look that she knew he couldn't resist. "Tell me"
"It's really stupid" he said pleadingly
She reached out and held his hand and it startled him but he smiled, took a drink "promise me you won't laugh"
"I promise" she said sincerely
"I was at your wedding" he admitted Polly looked shocked, "I met Ian down the pub and it just slipped out that you were getting married to Harry and I came up with a plan."
"What plan?"
"You know that bit in the wedding service where the priest goes speak now or forever hold your piece" Polly nodded so Ben continued "Well I had a speech I was going to say about how much I lo-, how amazing you are and how you shouldn't spend the rest of your life with such a miserable toe rag"
Polly had to suppress her laughter, the thought of Ben composing a speech and reading it in front of all her families and friends was mortifying but also quite romantic. She managed to speak "So why didn't you"
"Well I'd written the speech" Ben said
"You wrote it down" Polly said incredulously
"Well I wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything, I wanted to make sure I got it right. It took me about a week to write. So I went to the wedding I slipped in so your parents wouldn't see me and then I waited for you to arrive and then you did and you were so beautiful, so happy and vibrant that I realised I couldn't take this moment away from you so the priest said his line and I held my piece" Ben said sadly.
Polly looked at this wonderful sensitive man who she'd overlooked so drastically and felt a very prominent pang of regret but because he was Ben he said afterwards "Of course I got over it, I got married and I had three baby girls. Of course me and the Mrs broke up about three years ago now when she decided that I wasn't her type"
Polly smiled at him about how he could tell her this amazing story that made her fall in love with him and then ruin it by casually mentioning that he hadn't spent the rest of his life pining over her but then Polly realised she was being a bit self-absorbed expecting Ben to pine over her for the rest of his life. She then realised something so casually she asked "Do you still have it?"
"Have what?" he asked with forced nonchalance
"The speech" with a little bit more excitement in her voice than she wanted.
"Yeah I still have it" Ben said uncomfortably
"Can I read it?" Polly asked hopefully
"What's the point now, besides the priest did say that I should forever hold my peace" he said matter of factly.
"Well I'm not married to him any more so it doesn't really matter, what you say."
"I guess, I don't know exactly where it is now though" he said cautiously
"I'll help you look for it" she said eagerly.
"It's a deal we go to lunch tomorrow and then you can come round my flat and look for it" Ben said happily.
It was Sunday and her sons were going to a friend's house tomorrow. She smiled and accepted.
"Well that's great then Duchess, Would my lady like to get up and dance." He offered graciously
"You hate dancing" she said incredulously
"You're right of course but I love dancing with you." With that she smiled and took his hand and she felt a thrill inside her, it reminded her of their travels with the doctor. She also remembered how the first time they met he'd been sitting in a corner looking grumpy and refusing to have fun, and they met after all this time with her sitting in a corner looking grumpy and refusing to have fun and now here he was, her sailor returning the favour.
A/N That was a lot of fun to write and I hope you have just as much fun reading it. As always reviews are welcome and I hoped you enjoy this look at a very underrated doctor who couple. Also in my personal canon I like to think Barbara and Polly are cousins so yes it is that Ian.