First Doctor Who story ! (That I've ever posted, anyway) So R&R people !

I had a dream after watching the episode 'The Girl in the Fireplace', and since my mind works on overdrive even while I'm sleeping, this was the outcome.

Let me know if it's any good? 'Cause if it's utter crap I won't continue it xD

R&R!

Thanks!

Reinette Poisson stood in the light as the King left her chambers, and stared at her reflection in the window with a curious pair of eyes. She had only just met this man, yet she knew she was so very close to earning her title as his mistress. He was still only new in her life, yet she felt as if she'd known him her whole life, and they were just destined to be together. There was another man that she felt this way for, that one man she'd only met three times. Her fireplace man, who came and went through her life when he pleased, as if to just pop in and say 'hello'. There was something about him, about all the strange and wonderful things he said, about the magical fireplace he came and went through only twice before in her childhood. It all made her think there was something more out there, in the world, for her. Something bigger. Sometimes she found herself understanding his other-worldly speech and nodding contently as he explained another piece of her life, her stories of broken clocks and ticking men with masks and metal gears inside their heads.

Then she noticed the figure in the corner.

"How long have you been standing there?" She asked, frightened. The figure stayed silent and facing the wall. "Show yourself!"

The person turned to face her, and she gasped as she recognized the mask. The ever-present ticking noise that accompanied her nightmares.

Suddenly her window spun, and her hero stepped through, a rather strange looking contraption gripped in his hands. He turned and grinned at her. God, did this man ever age?

"Hello, Reinette." He said, "Hasn't time flown?"

"Fireplace man!" She exclaimed as her heart skipped a beat in her chest. She watched curiously as he was joined by two others.

He stepped past her and a spray of mist and smoke erupted from his contraption, causing the ticking clock-person to stop moving, a thick layer of frost forming over the mask. He threw his contraption to one of his companions, and the clock-woman began to make strange noises, loudly clicking and whirring.

"What's it doing?" The dark-skinned man with the gun asked.

"Switching back on." Said fireplace man. "Melting the ice."

"And then what?"

"Then it kills everyone in the room."

Its hand shot out towards his neck and Reinette flinched. It missed, and he retreated back to Reinette's side.

"Focuses the mind, doesn't it?" He smiled and turned back to the clock-work woman. "Who are you? Identify yourself."

The figure cocked its head but did not answer his question.

Fireplace man turned to Reinette, "Order it to answer me."

"Why should it listen to me?" She asked.

"I don't know. It did when you were a child." He leaned and whispered in her ear, "Let's see if you've still got it."

"Answer his question." She said confidently, "Answer any and all questions put to you."

The clock-work woman lowered its arm.

"I am repair droid seven." Once again she felt that tingle in the back of her mind that told her she knew that name. She knew that voice.

"So what happened to the ship, then?" Fireplace man asked, "There was a lot of damage."

"Ion storm. Eighty-two percent systems failure." Ion storm. What was an Ion storm? Why was it so familiar to her? Why did it make her want to cry?

"That ship hasn't moved in over a year. What's taken you so long?"

"We did not have the parts."

"Always comes down to that, doesn't it?" One of the companions said. "The parts."

"What's happened to the crew, where are they?" Asked fireplace man.

"We did not have the parts." Droid Seven repeated.

"There should have been over fifty people on your ship." He said persistently, "Where did they go?"

"We did not have the parts."

"Fifty people don't just disappear! Where-" His expression changed as he realized what the droid meant. "Oh. You didn't have the parts, so you used the crew."

Reinette saw flashes of terrified faces in her mind and she winced as her head began to ache with the repressed memories.

"The crew?"

"We found a camera, with an eye in it." The woman companion said. "And there was a heart... wired into machinery."

"It was just what it was programmed to." Fireplace man said. "Repairing the ship any way it can, with whatever it can find. No one told it the crew weren't on the menu. What did you say the flight deck smelt of?"

"Someone cooking..."

"Flesh plus heat. Barbeque."

Reinette's face turned green as she understood exactly what he meant.

"But what are you doing here?" Fireplace man continued his interrogation. "You've opened up time windows. That takes colossal energy. Why come here, you could have gone to your repair yard. Instead you come to eighteenth century France? Why?"

"One more part is required."

The droid jerked its head to Reinette and her mouth opened slightly. She felt everyone's eyes on her.

"Then why haven't you taken it?" Fireplace man asked the droid.

"She is incomplete."

"What... so that's the plan then? Just keep opening up more and more time windows, scanning her brain, and checking to see if she's 'done yet'?"

"Why her?" The woman companion asked. Everyone stared at her. The abruptness of her question startled Reinette.

"You've got all of history to choose from." The woman elaborated, "Why specifically her?"

"We are the same."

"We are not the same!" Reinette cried, "We are in no sense the same!"

"We are the same." The droid repeated.

Reinette's anger rose and she advanced towards the droid. "Get out of here! Get out of here this instance!"

"Reinette, no." Fireplace man ordered her.

The droid pressed a hand to its wrist and in a flash of light it disappeared.

"It's back on the ship!" Fireplace man said frantically. He ran back towards the window. "Rose, take Mickey and Arthur, get after it. Follow it, don't approach it, just watch what it does."

"Arthur?" The woman, Rose, asked.

"Good name for a horse." He said.

"No, your not keeping the horse!" She answered in a motherly tone.

"I let you keep Mickey!" He matched her tone, "Now go, go, go!"

He swung open the window and his two companions stepped through it into his world. The fireplace man closed it behind them and turned back around to face Reinette.

"Reinette, you're going to have to trust me. I need to find out what they're looking for, there's only one way I can do that. Won't hurt a bit."

She nodded and he placed his finger on her temples, closing his eyes. She took a breath and closed hers as well. Suddenly she felt his presence, not just in the room in front of her but also, in her memory, walking along the shores of her mind and stepping through her thoughts.

"Fireplace man..." She said quietly, "You are inside my mind."

"Oh dear, Reinette." He said, "You've had some cowboys in here."

"You are in my memories. You walk among them."

"If there's anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door, and close it. I won't look." She followed his advice. "Oh.. actually... there's a door just there."

Reinette opened her eyes and grinned at him slyly.

"You might want to clo- Ohh. Actually, several."

"To walk among the memories of another living soul..." Reinette said, "Do you ever get used to this?"

"I don't make a habit of it." He told her.

"How can you resist?"

Reinette flinched suddenly.

"Sorry, you might find old memories reawakening. Side effect."

"Oh, such a lonely childhood..." Reinette muttered.

"It'll pass." He assured her. "Stay with me."

"Oh, Doctor. So lonely. So very, very alone."

"What do you mean, alone? You've never been alone in your life-"

His eyes snapped open and her looked at her. "When did you start calling me 'Doctor'?"

"Such a lonely little boy. Lonely then, and even lonelier now." She opened her eyes. "How can you bear it?"

He hesitated and suddenly she let out a high-pitched scream as pain shuddered through her head and he let her go. She collapsed over and he caught her in his arms.

"Are you alright?" He asked. She stood shakily and suddenly became angry, shoving him away.

"Get off me! Good lord."

"What?" The Doctor looked confused.

"Oh, what in the world am I wearing?" She exclaimed, looking down at her dress. The Doctor's eyes were wide and she finally looked up at him. "And you! What the hell'd you do that for? Waking up old memories! They were hidden for a reason!"

"What?" He was still baffled at the change in personality. It didn't make any sense.

"I was hiding, you idiot! The only reason the repair droids haven't killed me yet is because my brain's no use to them without my knowledge! If I suppress the memories of the 51st century, and hide in the eighteenth, I'm no use to them. They leave me be."

"But, what?"

"My god, your thick!" She rolled her eyes and stuck out her hand. "Antoinette Cleopatra Creole. Cleo for short. Captain of the USS Madam de Pompadour." She jerked her head towards the window. "We got caught in an ion storm and the shields couldn't take the damage. We were running out of supplies and we didn't have the parts to fix the ship, so..."

"The droids used the crew instead."

"Yeah." She said sadly. "My First Officer was the last to be taken. But before he died, he sent me here and hid my memories." She sighed, "I always thought I was just named after Reinette Poisson - my parents loved Earth history. Turns out it was a little more than that."

"What... planet, are you from?" The Doctor asked.

"You won't have heard of it, trust me." He raised his brows at her.

"Try me."

She sighed. "I'm from Cherokai."

"Chero-" His eyes widened and he ran his fingers through his hair. "Your a Cherokee!"

"Yes. I'm a Cherokee." She rolled her eyes. "What about you, then? Fireplace man. That was the only thing I couldn't pick up from your memories. Couldn't catch the name of your home planet. Got glimpses, and let me say, it was really familiar, but I just can't put my finger on it."

"Gallifrey." He said sadly. Her eyes widened.

"No way." She muttered. "Not possible. You're a Time Lord? I thought that was just a legend! I thought they were just child's stories!"

Footsteps down the hall made them both freeze. They passed and Cleo shook her head.

"I've still got to stay here." She said, "It's not safe back on the ship. Now that my memories are back, they'll be looking for me. I'm 'useful' to them now."

"I can help you with that." The Doctor told her. "We can shut down their systems from the ship, right? But I'll probably need your help."

She shook her head. "I still have to ride this out, here. I can't just change history. Do you remember being taught that Madam de Pompadour ran off in the middle of the night with a strange man, and never became the mistress of the King? She'd never become famous, and I'd never be named after her, and a whole huge big paradox of a problem that I am not in the mood to deal with right now."

"Ah, tonight's the night you dance with the King, isn't it?" He asked.

"Yes. Well, the night Reinette dances with the King."

"Shouldn't you be going to him now, then?"

She rolled her eyes. "No harm in making him jealous, eh? Why don't you dance with me, Doctor."

She stuck out her hand and he hesitated. "I can't."

She laughed and held out her hand further. "Dance with me." She repeated.

"I can't."

"Doctor..." She sighed and pulled her hand back. "Doctor Who?" She looked him over a few times, "It's more than just a secret, isn't it?"

"What did you see?" He asked.

She smiled. "That there comes a time, Time Lord, when every lonely little boy, must learn how to dance."

She took his hand and led him away, this time ignoring his protesting.